System and method for processing currency bills and tickets

ABSTRACT

A method of processing documents includes receiving a stack of documents including currency bills and substitute currency media. Each substitute currency medium has at least one barcode. The method further includes transporting the stack of documents via a transport mechanism, one document at a time, along a transport path and denominating with a currency detector each of the currency bills in the stack of documents. The currency detector is positioned adjacent to the transport path. The method further includes scanning with a barcode scanner a barcode on each substitute currency medium in the stack of documents. The barcode scanner is positioned adjacent to the transport path. The method further includes imaging with an image scanner each substitute currency medium in the stack of documents to generate a raw image file of the substitute currency medium. The image scanner is positioned adjacent to the transport path.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/058,370, filed Mar. 28, 2008, which is a divisional of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/939,938, filed Sep. 13, 2004, nowabandoned, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/502,924, filed Sep. 15, 2003; this application is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/544,228,filed Oct. 5, 2006, which claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/723,652, filed Oct. 5, 2005; this application is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/638,231,filed Aug. 7, 2003, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/965,428, filed Sep. 27, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No.7,187,795; this application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/967,232, filed Sep. 28, 2001, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/562,231,filed Apr. 28, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,537, and which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/502,666,filed Feb. 11, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,398,000; all of which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to document processing systemsand, more particularly, to systems and methods for processing andimaging currency bills and tickets.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a document processing environment it is highly desirable to achieveefficient means of processing documents. In general, higher efficiencyin the processing of documents translates into lower business costs.Many businesses, such as banks, casinos, and retail stores, need toprocess large volumes of documents on a daily basis.

Manufacturers of slot machines used in casinos and other gamingestablishments have developed coinless redemption slot machines. Luckywinners using these machines receive their payout in the form of acasino cashout ticket instead of coins or currency bills. The casinocashout ticket is encoded, typically in the form of a barcode, with anumber that is associated with the payout amount. This type of barcodedcasino cashout ticket is assigned a ticket number when it is dispensedto the game player, and this ticket number is printed as a barcode onthe face of the ticket. The payout amount is not encoded on the ticket,but rather is stored, typically in a remote database, along with theticket number. Another form of a casino cashout ticket includes twobarcodes. One of the barcodes represents a ticket number, and anotherbarcode represents the payout amount.

To redeem the payout, the winner may insert the casino cashout ticketinto a slot box or validator of a slot machine or casino redemptionmachine, which validates the ticket and either dispenses the payoutamount in cash or awards the winner a number of credits commensuratewith the payout amount. The slot box also accepts currency bills. Whenthe casino operators empty the slot boxes, the cartridges may contain acombination of currency bills and cashout tickets.

Most casinos are equipped with currency processing devices which rapidlysort, count, and authenticate currency bills. However, these machinescannot handle or recognize casino cashout tickets, so the operator mustmanually hand-sort the currency bills from the casino cashout tickets sothat they can be processed separately. The hand-sorting and manual-entrysteps are both time and labor intensive. Additionally, some casinosretain the processed casino cashout tickets for a predetermined amountof time for record-keeping or other purposes, such as compliance withgaming regulations. The long-term or short-term storage and handling ofthese casino cashout tickets can be voluminous, burdensome, and costly.

Thus, there is a need for a document processing device that efficientlyprocesses documents including currency bills and casino cashout tickets.There also exists a need for a document processing device that minimizesthe handling of casino cashout tickets with minimal human intervention,lower costs, and decreases in the potential of human error.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to some embodiments, a method of processing documents includesreceiving a stack of documents including currency bills and substitutecurrency media. Each substitute currency medium has at least onebarcode. The method further includes transporting the stack of documentsvia a transport mechanism, one document at a time, along a transportpath and denominating with a currency detector each of the currencybills in the stack of documents. The currency detector is positionedadjacent to the transport path. The method further includes scanningwith a barcode scanner a barcode on each substitute currency medium inthe stack of documents. The barcode scanner is positioned adjacent tothe transport path. The method further includes imaging with an imagescanner each substitute currency medium in the stack of documents togenerate a raw image file of the substitute currency medium. The imagescanner is positioned adjacent to the transport path.

According to other embodiments, a method of processing documentsincludes receiving at least one batch of documents including currencybills and substitute currency media and transporting via a transportmechanism the at least one batch of documents, one document at a time,past an evaluation unit. The evaluation unit includes a currencydetector and an image scanner. The method further includes denominatingthe currency bills in the at least one batch of documents with thecurrency detector and imaging the substitute currency media in the atleast one batch of documents with the image scanner to produce an imagefile.

According to some embodiments, a document processing device includes aninput receptacle for receiving a stack of documents, the stack ofdocuments including currency bills and substitute currency media and atransport mechanism for transporting the documents, one at a time, fromthe input receptacle along a transport path. The device further includesa currency detector positioned adjacent the transport path, a mediadetector positioned adjacent the transport path, and an image scannerpositioned adjacent the transport path. The currency detector isconfigured to denominate all of the currency bills in the stack ofdocuments, the media detector is configured to scan an indicia locatedon each passing substitute currency medium, and the image scanner isconfigured to image each of the substitute currency media to produce animage file.

According to other embodiments, a method of processing documentsincludes receiving a batch of documents including currency bills andsubstitute currency media. Each substitute currency medium has abarcoded pattern. The batch of documents are transported via a transportmechanism, one document at a time, along a transport path. The methodfurther includes imaging each of the documents with an image scanner togenerate a raw image file and using a controller to denominate each ofthe currency bills from the raw image file of each of the currency billsand to decode the barcoded pattern in the raw image file for eachsubstitute currency medium. The image scanner is positioned adjacent tothe transport path.

According to some embodiments, a method of processing substitutecurrency media includes receiving a stack of substitute currency mediain an input receptacle, each substitute currency medium having abarcoded pattern. The stack of substitute currency media are transportedvia a transport mechanism, one substitute currency medium at a time, ata rate of at least 400 substitute currency media per minute, along atransport path. The method further includes imaging each substitutecurrency medium with an image scanner to generate a raw image file andusing a controller to decode a barcoded pattern in the raw image filefor each substitute currency medium. The image scanner is positionedadjacent to the transport path.

According to other embodiments, a method of processing substitutecurrency media includes receiving a stack of substitute currency mediain an input receptacle, each substitute currency medium having abarcoded pattern. The stack of substitute currency media are transportedvia a transport mechanism, one substitute currency medium at a time, ata rate of at least 400 substitute currency media per minute, along atransport path. The method further includes imaging each substitutecurrency medium with an image scanner to generate a raw image file andusing a controller to extract ticket data from the raw image file foreach substitute currency medium. The image scanner is positionedadjacent to the transport path.

The above summary of the present disclosure is not intended to representeach embodiment, or every aspect, of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent uponreading the following detailed description in conjunction with thedrawings in which:

FIG. 1 a is a block diagram of a document processing device according toone embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 1 b is a block diagram of an evaluation region of a documentprocessing device according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1 c is a block diagram of an evaluation region of a documentprocessing device according to another embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 1 d is a top view of a transport path of a document processingdevice showing a sequence of exemplary documents to be processed;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a document processing device accordingto one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a front view of a document processing device according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 a is a perspective view of an evaluation region according to oneembodiment of the document processing device of the present invention;

FIG. 4 a-1 is a perspective view of an evaluation region according toanother embodiment of the document processing device of the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 b is a side view of an evaluation region according to oneembodiment of the document processing device of the present invention;

FIG. 4 b-1 is a side view of an evaluation region according to anotherembodiment of the document processing device of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a compact document processing devicehaving a single output receptacle according to one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 is a side cross-sectional view of the device shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 a is a perspective view of a compact document processing devicehaving dual output receptacles according to one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 7 b is a side cross-sectional view of the device shown in FIG. 7 a;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a document processing device coupled to acoin sorting device according to one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a compact coin sorting device accordingto one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 a is a perspective view of a funds processing machine accordingto one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 b is a side view of the funds processing machine of FIG. 10 awhich schematically illustrates the various modules present in the fundsprocessing machine;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a network of document processing devicesin communication with a computer network;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart describing the operation of a document processingdevice according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart further describing the operation of a documentprocessing device according to any embodiment described in connectionwith FIG. 12;

FIG. 13 a is a flowchart of a method for operating a document processingdevice according to any embodiment of the present invention in which thedocument processing device is adapted to process documents bearing morethan one barcode;

FIG. 14 illustrates a block diagram of a touch/video display accordingto one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a method for processing documents according toone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a method for processing documents according toanother embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a method of multiple batch processingaccording to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 18 a is a flowchart of a method of multiple batch processingaccording to another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 18 b is a continuation of the flowchart shown in FIG. 18 a;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart of a method of multiple batch processingaccording to another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart of a method of multiple batch processingaccording to another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart of a method of multiple batch processingaccording to another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 22 a is a flowchart of a method of multiple batch processingaccording to another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 22 b is a continuation of the flowchart shown in FIG. 22 a;

FIG. 23 illustrates a document processing according to an embodiment ofthe invention;

FIG. 24 is a flowchart of a method for finding a document according toone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 25 is a flowchart of a method for finding a document according toanother embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a flowchart of a method for finding a stack of documentsaccording to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a flowchart of a method for finding a stack of documentsaccording to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 28 is a front view illustration of a document processing deviceaccording to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 29 is a front view of a document processing device according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 30 a is an illustration of one side of a separator card accordingto one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 30 b is a front view of the separator card shown in FIG. 30 b;

FIG. 31 a is a top perspective view of a batch of documents according toone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 31 b is a bottom perspective view of the batch of documents shownin FIG. 31 a;

FIG. 32 is perspective view illustration of a feeder assembly containinga batch of documents according to one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 33 is a side view of a feeder assembly according to one embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 34 is an enlarged view of a portion of the feeder assembly shown inFIG. 33 illustrating a sensor assembly according to one embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 35 is an exploded view of a sensor assembly according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 36 is a front view of a transport mechanism according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 37 is a perspective view of two offsort receptacles according toone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 38 is a perspective view of the two offsort receptacles shown inFIG. 37 revealing a portion of a transport mechanism according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 39 is a flowchart illustrating steps for processing at least onebatch of documents according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 40 a is a flowchart illustrating steps for clearing a document jamwhen processing at least one batch of documents according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 40 b is an illustration of an exemplary computer screen shot of ajam reconciliation process according to one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 40 c is another illustration of an exemplary computer screen shotof a jam reconciliation process according to one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 40 d is yet another illustration of an exemplary computer screenshot of a jam reconciliation process according to one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 40 e is an illustration of an exemplary computer screen shot of amanual currency menu according to one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 40 f is an illustration of an exemplary computer screen shot of acurrency processing device according to one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 41 a is a back view of a separator card according to anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 41 b is a back view of a separator card according to yet anotherembodiment of the present invention

FIG. 42 is a flowchart describing the operation of a document processingdevice according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 43 is a flowchart describing other embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

While the present disclosure is susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way ofexample in the drawings and will be described in detail herein. Itshould be understood, however, that the present disclosure is notintended to be limited to the particular forms and embodimentsdisclosed. Rather, the present disclosure is to cover all modifications,equivalents, embodiments, and alternatives falling within the spirit andscope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 a is a functional block diagram of a document processing device100 according to one embodiment of the present invention. The documentprocessing device 100 generally includes an input receptacle 102, anevaluation region 104, a transport mechanism 106, and an outputreceptacle 108. As explained below, in alternate embodiments, the device100 includes more than one output receptacle 108. The output receptacle108 may also be variously referred to as a reject or offsort pocket orreceptacle. Disposed along the transport path 106 is a currency detector110 and a media detector 112 as functionally illustrated in FIG. 1 a.The currency detector 110 and a control unit 116 are connected to acontroller 114, which is adapted to control the operation of the device100 and to communicate information to and from the control unit 116. Forexample, the controller 114 may send display information to and receiveoperator input from the control unit 116. Optionally, the control unit116 may comprise a touch screen which is coupled to the device 100, orit may comprise a combination of a desktop computer or laptop, display,and/or keyboard which are coupled to the device 100. An optional printer120 is shown coupled to the device 100. In an alternate embodiment, thedevice 100 is not coupled to a printer 120.

In the illustrated embodiment, the device 100 optionally includes acommunications port 118 which is coupled to the controller 114. Thecontroller 114 may comprise one or more processors which are adapted tocontrol specific components in the device 100 and to process informationassociated with specific components in the device 100, the control unit116, or the communications port 118. The communications port 118 mayoptionally be a serial port, a parallel port, a USB port, a wirelessport adapted for wireless communication with a remote device, or anyother suitable I/O port. In an alternate embodiment, the device 100 doesnot include the communications port 118. The controller 114 may furthercomprise memory, such as random access memory or any other suitablememory.

Although the currency detector 110 is shown to be disposed on one sideof the transport path 106, it is understood that the currency detector110 may instead be disposed on the opposite side of the transport path106 only or on both sides of the transport path 106. In the same manner,the media detector 112 may be disposed on the opposite side of thetransport path 106 only or on both sides of the transport path 106.These alternate embodiments are described in more detail in connectionwith FIG. 1 b below.

In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 1 a, a stack of currency bills andsubstitute currency media is provided to the input receptacle 102 in anyorder or in a predetermined order. In one embodiment, the operatorprovides a mixed combination of currency bills and substitute currencymedia to the input receptacle 102, which are processed and delivered toone or more output receptacles. In another embodiment, the operatorprovides a stack of currency bills only to the input receptacle 102,which are processed and delivered to one or more output receptacles, andthen a stack of substitute media only to the input receptacle 102, whichare processed and delivered to one or more output receptacles, or viceversa. In this embodiment, the operator may further indicate via thecontrol unit 116 which type of document is to be processed, and thecontroller 114 may “deactivate” one or more detectors in the evaluationregion 104. For example, if the operator indicates that the type ofdocuments to be processed is currency bills, the controller 114 mayinstruct the media detector 112 to ignore the document as it passesalong the transport path 106. Alternatively, if the operator indicatesthat the type of documents to be processed is substitute currency media,the controller 114 may instruct the currency detector 110 to ignore thedocument as it passes along the transport path 106. Alternatively, thecurrency detector 110 and the substitute currency media 112 both detectcharacteristics of the document passing along the transport path, andthe control unit 116 may alert the operator of an error condition, suchas a substitute currency medium was detected in a stack of currencybills, or a currency bill was detected in a stack of substitute currencymedia. The operator may set aside the detected document for laterprocessing.

As used herein, a U.S. currency bill refers to U.S. legal tender, suchas a $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, or $100 note, and a foreign currencybill refers to any bank note issued by a non-U.S. governmental agency aslegal tender, such as a Euro, Japanese Yen, or British Pound note. A“currency bill” can be either a U.S. or foreign currency bill. The terms“currency note” and “bank note,” are synonymous with the term “currencybill.”

The term “currency bills” or “currency bill” can also refer to bills,promotional media, substitute currency media or documents issued bycasinos (e.g., casino script, casino tickets, cashout vouchers, couponsand the like such as “EZ Pay” tickets or “Quiket” tickets), otherprivate entities such as “DISNEY DOLLARS®” (a registered trademark ofWalt Disney Enterprises of Burbank, Calif.) or “GEOFFREY DOLLARS®” (aregistered trademark of Toys 'R US), and entities which utilize barcoded transaction records (such as casino tickets, cashout tickets,retailer coupons, gift certificates and the like).

The term “substitute currency media” refers to redeemable documents. Aredeemable document is a document that can be (a) redeemed for cash or(b) exchanged for goods or services or (c) both. Examples of substitutecurrency media include without limitation: casino cashout tickets (alsovariously called cashout vouchers or coupons) such as “EZ Pay” ticketsissued by International Gaming Technology or “Quicket” tickets issued byCasino Data Systems or CashFree™ slot-machine tickets issued bySlot-Tickets.com; casino script, which is regularly issued by casinos inpre-set denominations such as $5 casino script, $20 casino script, forexample; promotional media such as “DISNEY DOLLARS®” or Toys 'R Us“GEOFFREY DOLLARS®” or McDonald's Gift Certificates are also issued inpre-set denominations (e.g., a $1 Disney Dollar). While some types of“substitute currency media” are regularly issued in pre-setdenominations such as the above-mentioned Disney Dollars, other types of“substitute currency media” include manufacturer or retailer coupons,gift certificates, gift cards, or food stamps.

Substitute currency media may include a single barcode or more than onebarcode, and these types of substitute currency media are referred toherein as “barcoded tickets.” Examples of barcoded tickets 135, 136include casino cashout tickets such as “EZ Pay” Tickets and “Quicket”cashout tickets and CashFree™ slot-machine tickets, barcoded retailercoupons, barcoded gift certificates, or any other promotional media thatincludes a barcode. The singular form of “substitute currency media” isreferred to as “substitute currency medium” or “medium” for short.

As used herein, a “document” includes a currency bill or a substitutecurrency medium. Likewise, the term “documents” includes currency billsand/or substitute currency media.

The term “substitute funds” includes casino script, paper tokens, andbarcoded tickets. The term substitute currency media encompassessubstitute funds, such that the term substitute funds defines a subsetof documents encompassed by the term substitute currency media.

As is known, the dimensions of a U.S. currency bill are about 2.5inches×6 inches (6.5 cm×15.5 cm). All U.S. currency bills have the samedimensions, but in many foreign countries, the dimensions from onedenomination to another varies. In addition, certain types of substitutecurrency media such as “EZ Pay” tickets have approximately the samedimensions of U.S. currency, however, it is understood that thedimensions of substitute currency media may vary from type to type. Thedevice 100 of the present invention according to any embodimentdescribed herein is adapted to process documents having the samedimension or documents having varied dimensions.

Still referring to FIG. 1 a, the transport mechanism 106 is adapted totransport the documents, one at a time, through the device 100 in thedirection of arrow A, past the currency detector 110 and the mediadetector 112, and to the output receptacle 108. The currency detector110 is adapted to detect one or more predetermined characteristics on acurrency bill or on a particular kind of substitute currency medium,such as a Disney Dollar, and the media detector 112 is adapted to detectone or more predetermined characteristics on a particular kind ofsubstitute currency medium, such as a barcode on a barcoded ticket, asexplained in more detail in connection with FIG. 1 b. The currencydetector 110 comprises one or more sensors depending on a number ofvariables. The variables relate to whether the device 100 isauthenticating, counting, or discriminating denominations of currencybills, and what distinguishing characteristics of the currency bills arebeing examined, for example, size, thickness, color, magnetism,reflectivity, absorbability, transmissivity, electrical conductivity,serial number, and so forth. The currency detector 110 may also employ avariety of detection means including, but not limited to, anycombination of the following: a size detector, a density sensor, anupper optical scan head, a lower optical scan head, a single orplurality of magnetic sensors, a thread sensor, an infrared sensor, anultraviolet/fluorescent light scan head, or an image scanner. Thesedetection means and a host of others are disclosed in commonly assignedU.S. Pat. No. 6,278,795, entitled “Multi-Pocket Currency Discriminator,”which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, andco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/965,428, entitled “ADocument Processing System Using Full Image Scanning,” filed on Sep. 27,2001, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.Examples of discriminating denomination information from a currency billare shown and disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,592,which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

In the specific case of substitute currency media, the variables mayalso relate to what distinguishing characteristics of the substitutecurrency media are being examined, such as any combination of thefollowing without limitation: a barcode, a magnetic ink characterrecognition (MICR) pattern, characters readable by optical characterrecognition (OCR), including information printed according to the OCR-Aand OCR-B fonts, a magnetic pattern, an optical variable device (OVD)pattern such as a hologram, a magnetic or electrically conductivethread, conductive ink, magnetic ink, an electrically conductivepolymer, perforations, a coded watermark, or other encoded information.The detection of these distinguishing characteristics may be carried outby the media detector 112, which, in alternate embodiments, may employ avariety of detection means including, but not limited to, anycombination of the following: a barcode reader, an optical scan head, amagnetic sensor, a thread sensor, an infrared sensor, anultraviolet/fluorescent light scan head, an image scanner, or an imagingcamera. These detection means and a host of others are disclosed incommonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,795, entitled “Multi-PocketCurrency Discriminator,” previously incorporated by reference, andco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/965,428, entitled “ADocument Processing System Using Full Image Scanning,” filed on Sep. 27,2001, also previously incorporated by reference, and may be modified inaccordance with the present invention to detect distinguishingcharacteristics associated with substitute currency media or to capturean electronic image of one or both sides of a medium.

Some environments, such as a casino environment, may desire to retaincopies of processed substitute currency media for record-keeping orother purposes, such as compliance with gaming regulations. In suchenvironments, the media detector 112 includes an imaging camera whichcaptures an electronic image of one or both sides of a passingsubstitute currency medium and/or a currency bill. The electronic imagemay be analyzed by software for a barcoded pattern, and the barcodedpattern may be decoded by software. The use of software to analyze anddecode the barcoded pattern eliminates the need to include a barcodereader in the media detector 112. After processing, the processedsubstitute currency medium can be discarded, and the electronic image isstored on one or more storage media, such as hard drives, CD-ROMs, orDVDs, for example. Accordingly, this embodiment eliminates the need forlarge physical storage space to house the processed substitute currencymedia. Moreover, the substitute currency media may also beelectronically indexed or cross-referenced, simplifying future retrievaland archiving.

According to some embodiments, the document processing device 100includes an image scanner. The image scanner can be a part of thecurrency detector 110, a part of the media detector 112, or the imagescanner can be a separate device along the transport path 106. Accordingto some embodiments, the document processing device 100 performs animage quality check. The image quality check can be used to determine ifthe images generated in the device 100 are of a sufficient predeterminedquality. Quality characteristics can include, for example, imageresolution, pixilation, blurriness, sharpness, and readability. In someembodiments, the quality of an image is determined based on whether aportion of the image or an indicia in the image can be successfullydecoded by a software program. The indicia can be, for example, abarcoded pattern on a casino cashout ticket.

According to some embodiments, the media detector 112 scans an indiciaon a passing substitute currency medium, which generates an electricalsignal representative of the indicia (e.g., a barcoded pattern) on thesubstitute currency medium. The media detector 112 transmits theelectrical signal to the controller 114, which decodes the electricalsignal into characters, such as, for example, alphanumeric or numericcharacters. The characters represent at least a ticket number, whichuniquely identifies the specific substitute currency medium beingprocessed. The image scanner can also capture an electronic image of thepassing substitute currency medium bearing the indicia. The imagescanner transmits the electronic image to the controller 114. Theelectronic image is analyzed by software for the indicia (e.g., abarcoded pattern). In the case of the indicia being a barcoded pattern,the controller 114 analyzes the barcoded pattern and decodes thebarcoded pattern using software. The decoded barcoded pattern results incharacters that represent, for example, a ticket number. According tosome embodiments, the controller 114 compares the ticket number obtainedfrom the media detector 112 and the ticket number obtained from theimage scanner, which again, can be a separate device along the transportpath, a part of the media detector 112, or a part of the currencydetector 110. If the ticket numbers match, then the electronic imagegenerated by the image scanner is determined to be of a sufficientquality and the image can be saved into a memory. If the ticket numbersdo not match, then the specific substitute currency medium can be offsorted or flagged for further processing by an operator. According tosome embodiments, if the ticket numbers match, then the specificsubstitute currency medium is transported to a document destructiondevice.

In other embodiments it is contemplated that instead of or in additionto an imaging camera, an image scanner is employed to scan one or bothsides of a substitute currency medium or currency bill and save thecaptured images to a storage medium.

According to some embodiments, the currency detector 110, the mediadetector 112, or both contain an image scanner, which captures anelectronic image of one or both sides of a passing currency bill and/ora passing substitute currency medium. Alternatively, the documentprocessing device 100 contains a currency detector 110, a media detector112, and a separate image scanner. In some embodiments, the imagescanner contains an optical processing functionality, such as, forexample, an optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities forprocessing the image (full or partial) to identify the information ofinterest. If desired, such optical processing functionalities caninstead be implemented in the controller 114. For example, theidentified information of interest may comprise the characters printedin one or more fields of the documents as identified by the OCRcapability. The identified information of interest may also compriseprinted features, patterns or relationships on the currency bills asidentified through optical signal processing techniques.

According to some embodiments, the OCR capability may recognize certainfields within a currency bill 134 or a barcoded ticket 136. For example,the OCR may search the full or partial image for a serial number of thecurrency bill and extract the serial number once the field is located.In other embodiments, the OCR may search the full or partial image for aticket number of the substitute currency medium and extract the ticketnumber once the field is located.

The imager/OCR implementation discussed above is not the only possibleimplementation for the image scanner of the device 100. Othertechnological options for scanning the document(s) and extracting thecertain information of interest are known to those skilled in the art.For example, instead of imaging all or a portion of the document(s), theimage scanner may instead implement a line or strip reflective scanningoperation like that disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,815,592 and 5,982,918,the disclosures of which are each incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety, to obtain scan data in the form of printed surfacefeature information such as that which may be obtained from detectedreflectance data. Appropriate signal processing techniques, such assoftware-based pattern recognition algorithms, can then be applied tothe scanned information by either the image scanner or the controller114 in order to discern the printed features as the information ofinterest, such as, for example, serial numbers, ticket numbers, linewidths, line directions, line relationships, and the like.

Other scanning modules and methods can be used in place of or inaddition to the ones described above. These include CCD array systems,multi-cell arrays, contact image sensing, CMOS image sensors, and otherwell-known scanning techniques. Examples of these techniques and devicesare described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,023,782, 5,237,158, 5,187,750, and4,205,780, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentireties. The scanning module can also be a color image scanner suchas the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,292, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

The information of interest collected from each scanned document is thensaved in a memory (not shown). This information may be managed by aprocessing functionality for storage by and/or through the controller114. Alternatively, the image scanner may be linked for data transferand delivery of information directly to the memory.

According to some embodiments, in which the image scanner operates tocollect document images, the collected images are passed to the memoryand stored therein as image files. The determined information ofinterest is also stored in the memory in association with itscorresponding image using a process of tagging the information ofinterest as data to the image file.

According to some embodiments, the document images may not necessarilybe collected, in which case, the determined information of interest isstored in the memory in a data file.

According to some embodiments, the information of interest is linked insome form or fashion known to those skilled in the art (for example, bydatabase association) to other information and, if applicable, to thedocument image file.

Where the memory is used to store the images of the documents scanned bythe image scanner, the memory may store the document as a full image ofthe document (e.g., a picture of the entire document). Alternatively,the memory may only store an image of a portion of the document (e.g., apartial picture of the document). It may be that the memory only needsto store an image of half of the document in order to obtain the fieldsneeded for a given application. In another embodiment, the memory mayonly store data for a selected strip of the document, such as, forexample, a horizontal or vertical strip.

According to some embodiments, the image scanner scans all documents,but only images of substitute currency media are passed to the memoryfor storage therein. In such embodiments, the images of thenon-substitute-currency-media documents may be used, for example, todenominate and/or authenticate the non-substitute-currency-mediadocuments. According to other embodiments, the image scanner only scanssubstitute currency media and passes the images of the substitutecurrency media to the memory for storage therein. According to otherembodiments, the image scanner scans all documents and passes the imagesof all of the documents to the memory for storage therein.

FIG. 1 b shows a functional block diagram of a portion of an evaluationregion 104 according to one embodiment of the present invention. Theevaluation region 104 generally includes a currency detector 110, amedia detector 112, and a controller 114. The evaluation region 104 mayoptionally include a second currency detector 122 a and/or a secondmedia detector 124 a which may be disposed on the opposite side of atransport mechanism 106 as shown in FIG. 1 b. The currency detector 110may include any combination of the detection means identified above. Inthe illustrated embodiment, the media detector 112 comprises a barcodereader 128 and a mirror (not shown). Barcode readers are well known inthe art, and will not be described in detail herein. Generally, barcodereaders typically use a light beam generated by a laser diode or LEDlight source 140 to illuminate a barcode label. The laser beam or LEDbeam is deflected in a certain pattern across the barcode label. Thereflected light representing the light and dark bars on a barcode labelare processed and then converted into a digital signal representing thebarcoded pattern. The digital signal is analyzed by a controller wherethe signal is decoded into characters (e.g., alphanumerics and/orpunctuation).

In one embodiment, the barcode reader 128 is an MS-9 barcode readermanufactured by Microscan. In alternate embodiments, other barcodereaders may be employed, such as, for example, the LM 520, LazerData8000, LazerData 9000E, or LD12000 barcode readers manufactured by PSC,Inc., the MS-880, MS-7100 or MS-7180 barcode readers manufactured byMicroscan, the Maxiscan 2100 or Maxiscan 3300 barcode readersmanufactured by Intermec, or an LED barcode reader manufactured by WelchAllyn. It is understood that the present invention is not limited to anyparticular barcode reader. The selection of a particular barcode readerdepends on a number of factors, including size constraints in theevaluation region 104 of the document processing device, the particularbarcode symbology to be scanned, and the desired scan rate. For example,the LazerData 9000E, manufactured by PSC, Inc., has scan rates rangingfrom 500 scans per second to 2000 scans per second, and is adapted toscan a linear barcode. The dimensions of the LazerData 9000E areapproximately 3.84″ (D)×2.52″ (L)×2.52″ (W), or 97.5 mm (D)×64 mm (L)×64mm (W). The MS-9 barcode reader has dimensions of approximately 3″(H)×2.13″ (W)×1.63″ (D), or 75 mm (H)×53.5 mm (W)×41 mm (D), and has ascan rate of up to 2000 scans per second.

In alternate embodiments, the barcode reader 128 reads less than 500barcoded documents per minute, at least 500 barcoded documents perminute, 800 barcoded documents per minute, 1000 barcoded documents perminute, 1200 barcoded documents per minute, and 1500 barcoded documentsper minute.

In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 1 b, the controller 114controls the operation of the barcode reader 128, but in alternateembodiments, a separate barcode controller (not shown) controls theoperation of the barcode reader 128 and is coupled to the controller114. The controller 114 also controls other operations of the documentprocessing device.

Still referring to FIG. 1 b, the media detector 112 optionally includesthe barcode reader 128 and the mirror (not shown). The mirror ispositioned proximate the barcode reader 128 to “lengthen” the effectivedistance between the barcode reader 128 and the document to be scanned,in applications where the barcode reader 128 is placed too close to thedocument. As is known, some barcode readers require that they be placedwithin a range of distance from the scanning surface. If the distance isoutside the distance range specifications, the barcode reader cannotobtain reliable and accurate readings. In such applications, the mirrormay be positioned to deflect the light beam from the barcode reader 128onto the document passing along the transport path 106. In alternateembodiments in which the barcode reader 128 is positioned withindistance range specifications, the mirror is not included.

Still referring to FIG. 1 b, the currency bill 134 and the barcodedticket 136 are shown on the transport mechanism 106. In one embodiment,the barcode encodes characters, such as numbers, which are associatedwith certain information. For example, on a casino cashout ticket, thebarcode number may be associated with any combination of the following:a payout amount; a ticket number; identification information associatedwith the slot machine that dispensed the casino cashout ticket, such as,for example, the slot machine number, the time of dispensation, and theamount of payout from the dispensing slot machine during a time period;identification information associated with the winner of the casinocashout ticket; and so forth. On a gift certificate, the barcode numbermay be associated with any combination of the following: a gift amount;a gift certificate number; information about a retailer dispensing thegift certificate; terms and conditions information; and so forth. In analternate embodiment, the barcode encodes a number which is associatedwith a certain discount. For example, on a store coupon, the barcodenumber is typically associated with a promotional discount, such asfifty cents off, or buy one, get one free. The barcode numbers and theircorresponding monetary and discount amounts are typically stored in adatabase. When the barcode number is scanned and identified, thecorresponding amount or discount is queried from the database. Thedatabase may also include information indicative of whether a ticket hasbeen redeemed. For example, to prevent fraudulent use of cashout ticketsin the casino environment, the database may also keep track of whether acashout ticket has been redeemed. In yet other embodiments, the barcodemay encode any combination of numbers, letters, punctuation, or othercharacters. It is understood that a barcode in accordance with anyembodiment shown or described herein may encode characters including anycombination of numbers, letters, punctuation, or other characters.

Barcodes are well known in the art, and there are numerous barcodesymbologics, such as, for example, Codabar, Code 3 of 9, Interleaved 2of 5, UPC, EAN 8, EAN 13, Postnct, Planet Code, Aztec Code, Code 11,Code 16K, Code 49, Code 93, Code 128, Data Matrix, MaxiCode, 3D or bumpybarcode, to name just a few. These and other barcode symbologies encodecharacters such as numbers, letters, and/or punctuation. Barcodes can belinear, like the UPC code, 2-D like the MaxiCode, or 3-D like the bumpybarcode. Barcodes are typically black and white, but they may also be incolor. In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 1 b, the barcode reader 128is capable of scanning a linear barcode. A linear barcode typicallycomprises a series of parallel dark bars of varying widths withintervening light spaces, also of varying widths. It is expresslyunderstood that the present invention is not limited to any particularbarcode symbology or to any particular barcode reader. In alternateembodiments, multiple barcode readers may be disposed in the evaluationregion 104 to identify different barcode symbologies. For example, aretailer may accept both store coupons and gift certificates, but thegift certificates may be encoded with a different barcode symbology thanthe store coupons. In such a case, the evaluation region 104 may includetwo barcode readers, one to identify barcodes disposed on the giftcertificates, and one to identify barcodes disposed on the storecoupons.

Still referring to FIG. 1 b, the currency bill 134 and barcoded ticket136 are transported along the transport mechanism 106 in the directionof arrow A. In the illustrated embodiment, the currency bill 134 andbarcoded ticket 136 are first transported past the media detector 112and then past the currency detector 110. However, in an alternateembodiment, a document may be first transported past the currencydetector 110 and then past the media detector 112. Alternatively, thebarcode reader 128 and the currency detector 110 may be incorporatedinto a single component, such as in a scanner that is adapted to scanone or more selected areas of a document or the entire area of adocument. In this embodiment, the full image scanner scans for acharacteristic associated with a currency bill and for a characteristicassociated with a substitute currency medium.

As explained previously, the currency detector 110 may comprise one ormore sensors disposed at various locations along the transport mechanism106. In the alternative embodiment in which the barcode reader 128 isintegrated into the currency detector 110, the barcode reader 128 may bepositioned among the plurality of sensors at any location within thecurrency detector 110 and along the transport mechanism 106.Furthermore, as emphasized previously, the currency detector 110 may bedisposed on either side or both sides of the transport mechanism 106.

If the barcode reader 128 does not identify a barcode on the currencybill 134, the barcode reader 128 provides a “no read” electrical signalto the controller 114 indicating that no barcode was read or identifiedin that scan. As used herein, a substitute currency medium having anunreadable or non-existent barcode may be considered an “invalid”substitute currency medium. In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 1 b,the transport mechanism 106 transports the currency bill 134 in thedirection of arrow A towards the currency detector 110. The currencydetector 110 evaluates one or more distinguishing characteristics, suchas those specified above, of the currency bill 134. An optional secondcurrency detector 122 a disposed on the opposite side of the transportmechanism 106 may also evaluate one or more distinguishingcharacteristics of the currency bill 134.

In the direction of arrow A shown in FIG. 1 b, the next document to beevaluated is the barcoded ticket 136. In FIG. 1 b, the barcoded ticket136 is scanned by the barcode reader 128. If the barcode reader 128successfully reads the barcode 138 on the barcoded ticket 136, thebarcode reader 128 provides a “good read” electrical signal to thecontroller 114 indicating that the barcode reader 128 read or identifiedthe barcode 138. As used herein, the term “valid substitute currencymedium” refers in general to a document having a barcode identified bythe barcode reader 128. The barcode reader 128 also provides anelectrical signal representative of the barcoded pattern 138 to thecontroller 114. The controller 114 decodes this electrical signal intocharacters, and stores these characters in memory which may optionallybe integrated in the controller 114 or coupled to the controller 114.

In one embodiment, once the barcode reader 128 scans a valid barcode onthe barcoded ticket 136, the controller 114 instructs the currencydetector 110 to ignore the barcoded ticket 136. In an alternateembodiment, the controller 114 instructs the currency detector 110 toevaluate the barcoded ticket 136. In this alternate embodiment, if thecontroller 110 receives a signal from the media detector 124 that it hasread a valid barcode and a signal from the currency detector 110 that ithas detected an authentic currency, then the controller 114 provides anerror signal to the operator alerting the operator that an unacceptabledocument has been detected. As used herein, the terms “operator,”“user,” and “customer” are interchangeable.

As stated above, the controller 114 may include a memory (not shown). Inone embodiment, the memory includes master authenticating information.The master authenticating information includes information aboutauthenticating characteristics of a currency bill, such as size,thickness, color, magnetism, reflectivity, absorbability,transmissivity, electrical conductivity, serial number, and so forth.The memory may also include master denomination information. The masterdenomination information includes information about denominationcharacteristics of a currency bill. Examples of such characteristics aredisclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,592, previouslyincorporated by reference. In another embodiment, the memory includesmedia information, which includes information about the substitutecurrency media. This information may include, in alternate embodiments,any combination of the following: an amount of money associated with amedium, a ticket number of a casino cashout ticket, the charactersencoded on a barcode on a barcoded medium, self-checkout stationidentification information, casino gaming machine information,information about the identity of the person redeeming the redeemabledocument, or the time a medium was dispensed, for example. In thisembodiment, the media information may be periodically updated in thememory via a computer network coupled to the document processing device100, such as described in connection with FIG. 11, or the mediainformation may be periodically updated in the memory via personnel,such as retailer or casino personnel. In the latter embodiment, aninterface would be provided via the control unit 116 to the personnel toreprogram the memory. The memory may be random access memory, flashmemory, EEPROM, or any other suitable rewriteable memory.

As explained above, the printer 120 may optionally be coupled to thedevice 100. When the device 100 is coupled to the printer 120, theprinter 120 may print reports containing information about the documentsprocessed by the device 100, such as the reports described in connectionwith FIGS. 12-13 below. The printer 120 may dispense a redeemabledocument to an operator of the device 100. For example, as explainedbelow, an operator may deposit a stack of documents containing a mixedcombination of currency bills and substitute currency media into thedevice 100. The device 100 processes the stack of documents, and,according to one embodiment, dispenses a barcoded ticket whose barcodeis associated with the total value of documents processed. For example,an operator may deposit $134 of currency bills into the device 100 and$50 worth of redeemable documents. In this example, the device 100 woulddispense a barcoded ticket to the operator with a barcode associatedwith an amount of $184. In another embodiment, the printer 120 printsboth reports and dispenses redeemable documents.

FIG. 1 c shows an evaluation region 104 which is adapted to processcurrency bills and substitute currency media bearing more than onebarcode. A barcoded ticket 135 includes a first barcoded pattern 137 anda second barcoded pattern 139 disposed on a surface of the barcodedticket 135 in the same orientation. Note that the first barcoded pattern137 and the second barcoded pattern 139 could be disposed on oppositesurfaces of the barcoded ticket 135 or in different orientations. Forexample, one or both of the first and second barcoded patterns 137, 139could be disposed in a vertical orientation instead of a horizontalorientation as shown.

In a preferred embodiment, the first barcoded pattern 137 and the secondbarcoded pattern 139 are encoded according to the same barcodesymbology, though they may also be encoded according to differentbarcode symbologies, including any combination of the barcodesymbologies mentioned above. Many commercially available barcode readersare capable of discerning among several different barcode symbologies,so the use of different barcode symbologies on a barcoded ticket wouldnot necessarily call for multiple barcode readers. However, if multiplebarcode readers are required, additional readers may be disposed in themedia detector 112. An optional second barcode reader 129 is shown inthe media detector 112 to scan for barcoded patterns on passingdocuments. Like the barcode reader 128, the optional second barcodereader 129 includes a light source 141 for illuminating the barcodedpattern. Barcode readers adapted to detect barcodes such as a bumpybarcode include an additional or alternate detection structure as isknown in the art.

As explained in connection with FIG. 1 b, the optional second barcodereader 129 may be disposed in the second media detector 124 a on theopposite side of the transport mechanism 106. Such an arrangement wouldpermit detection of a barcoded pattern regardless of the facingorientation of the document or would permit detection of a barcodedpattern disposed on both sides of a document. In other embodiments, twoor more barcode readers may be disposed on each side of the transportmechanism 106.

In embodiments having only one media detector disposed on one side ofthe transport mechanism 106, the substitute currency media would have tobe faced such that the barcode(s) could be detected by the barcodereader 128. This facing may be accomplished manually by the operatorbefore depositing the documents into the document processing device.Alternately, a document facing mechanism coupled to the transportmechanism 106 may be employed to rotate a document 180° so that the faceposition of the document is reversed. Further details of a documentfacing mechanism which may be utilized for this purpose are disclosed incommonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,074,334, entitled “Document FacingMethod and Apparatus,” which issued on Jun. 13, 2000, incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety. Those skilled in the art willappreciate that the document facing mechanism disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.6,074,334 can be positioned downstream or upstream of the evaluationregion 104. In the case where the document facing mechanism ispositioned upstream of the evaluation region 104, a suitable detector,such as a barcode reader (not shown), may be disposed upstream of thedocument facing mechanism to detect the orientation of a substitutecurrency medium before it is evaluated by the evaluation region 104.

In the case where the document facing mechanism is positioned downstreamof the evaluation region 104, the documents are transported past theevaluation region 104 and those documents which are not properly facedare then rotated by the document facing mechanism. Next, the properlyfaced document is fed back to the evaluation region 104 either along thesame transport path or along a different transport path for processing.This embodiment avoids the scenario where an operator must reprocesswrong-way facing documents.

According to some embodiments, the controller 114 shown in FIG. 1 c iscoupled to the communications port 118 and to a storage medium 119. Thestorage medium 119 may be a hard drive, a network drive, a floppy disk,a RAM, a CompactFlash card, a database, or any other suitable storagemedium. In one embodiment, the controller 114 stores characteristicinformation associated with the documents being processed in the storagemedium 119. In the case of a currency bill, the characteristicinformation may include information about the size, thickness, color,magnetism, reflectivity, absorbability, transmissivity, electricalconductivity, or serial number of the currency bill. The characteristicinformation may also include denomination discrimination information orany other information mentioned herein. In the case of a substitutecurrency medium, the characteristic information may include a barcodedpattern, a magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) pattern, charactersreadable by optical character recognition (OCR), including informationprinted according to the OCR-A and OCR-B fonts, a magnetic pattern, anoptical variable device (OVD) pattern such as a hologram, a magnetic orelectrically conductive thread, conductive ink, magnetic ink, anelectrically conductive polymer, perforations, a coded watermark, orother encoded information mentioned herein.

FIG. 1 d depicts an exemplary set of documents that might be handledalong a portion of the transport mechanism 106. The documents aretransported in the direction of arrow A, and, in one embodiment, thefirst document to be transported is a batch identification card 150 orheader card bearing a barcoded pattern 152. Except where distinction iswarranted, the term header card is used interchangeably for both headercard, which precedes a batch, and trailer card, which follows a batch.The barcoded pattern 152 disposed on the batch identification card 150encodes a set of characters that is associated with the machine fromwhich the documents that follow originated. For example, in a casinoenvironment, there might be numerous slot machines, video-pokermachines, and redemption machines which need to be emptied periodicallyand reconciled with the casino's accounting system. To identify fromwhich machine a given batch of documents originated, a batchidentification card is placed in the bill validator box of the machine Anumber is encoded in the form of a barcoded pattern 152 and imprinted orembedded on the batch identification card 150. The card 150 is thenplaced in the bill validator box such that when the contents of the boxis emptied and placed into an input receptacle of a document processingdevice, the card 150 will be the first document processed by thedocument processing device. For the sake of example, the barcodedpattern 152 encodes the number 00123, which represents slot machinenumber 123.

According to some embodiments, the bill validator box of the machine,also known as a slot box, contains a permanently mounted or affixedindicia. In some embodiments, the permanently mounted indicia is abarcode. In these embodiments, an operator or user of the documentprocessing device 100 can scan the barcode on the sot box using abarcode scanning device. The barcode scanning device employs similartechnologies and techniques as the barcode reader 128 discussed above.The barcode scanning device also includes a printer or printing device.After the operator scans a barcode on a particular slot box, the printerprints a barcoded ticket. According to some embodiments, these barcodedtickets are used as header cards and/or trailer cards as described abovein relation to FIG. 1 d. In these embodiments, the printed ticket usedas a header/trailer card is associated with a slot box number of thescanned slot box such that any documents processed before or after theheader/trailer card, respectively, are associated with the slot boxnumber on the slot box from which the documents came from.

The next documents to be processed are the currency bills and substitutecurrency media contained in the bill validator boxes of the machineidentified by the batch identification card 150. For illustrativepurposes only, a few currency bills and substitute currency media areshown in FIG. 1 d. In practice, the documents will not necessarily facethe same direction or have the same orientation, nor will necessarilythey be presented in the order shown. In the example illustrated, aone-dollar bill 154 is the next document to be transported along thetransport mechanism 106. The one-dollar bill 154 is followed by a firstbarcoded ticket 156 that bears two barcoded patterns 158, 160. Thebarcoded pattern 158 represents a multidigit ticket number such as 12345and the barcoded pattern 160 represents a value such as $100. Thebarcoded pattern 160 may include only numbers, such as 10000 torepresent $100.00. Alternately, the barcoded pattern 160 may be decodedinto a symbol and a decimal number, such as $100.00 to representone-hundred dollars or £50.50 to represent fifty pounds and fifty pence.The latter approach permits barcoded tickets to be dispensed in domesticand foreign currency amounts. The barcoded pattern 158 may be decodedinto a number having a fixed or variable number of digits or intoalphanumeric characters and symbols.

The presence of the barcoded ticket 156 on the transport mechanism 106means that a casino patron received the barcoded ticket 156, perhaps aspart of a casino's promotion to entice the casino patron to play a gameor perhaps because the patron won $100 at a gaming machine Then, thecasino patron exchanged the barcoded ticket 156 either for $100 cash orfor game credits at a gaming machine Thus, barcoded ticket 156 has beenredeemed, and needs to be processed so that it can be reconciled withthe casino's accounting system.

The next documents transported by the transport mechanism 106 are asecond barcoded ticket 162, a twenty-dollar bill 164, and a five-dollarbill 166. Additional documents (not shown) will be transported by thetransport mechanism 106 until there are no more documents in the inputreceptacle to be processed. If another batch identification card isdetected, all subsequent documents (until another batch identificationcard is detected) will be associated with the batch identification card.In an alternate embodiment, batch identification cards are not used.

Although the documents shown in FIG. 1 d have been discussed inconnection with a casino environment, the same discussion appliesequally to other environments where other types of documents are used,such as retailer stores where food coupons and gift certificates areused or amusement parks where promotional media are used.

According to some embodiments, subsequent to the processing of thedocuments, a separate process and apparatus for destroying documents maybe provided. According to some embodiments, once substitute currencymedia have been imaged and an image file of each substitute currencymedium is saved in a storage device and/or checked for quality, thesubstitute currency media can be destroyed. Imaging and saving imagefiles of processed substitute currency media can eliminate the need forsaving and storing the physical substitute currency media. Additionally,the direct destruction of the substitute currency media eliminates theneed to remove sorted substitute currency media from the documentprocessing device 100 for transport to storage or otherwise. Forexample, some casinos are required to keep records of each casinocashout ticket redeemed at the casino for a predetermined amount oftime. The long-term or short-term storage and handling of these physicalcasino cashout tickets can be voluminous, burdensome, and costly. Thus,coupling a document destruction device to the document processing device100 provides a direct path for each of the substitute currency mediumsuccessfully processed from the input receptacle 102 to the documentdestruction device.

According to some embodiments, a document is only destroyed after thedocument processing device 100 scans and images the document, saves animage file of the document, and verifies that the quality of the imagefile meets a set of predetermined standards. If the image file does notmeet the set of predetermined standards, then the document will beflagged and/or off-sorted for further processing that does not directlyinclude destroying the document. In some embodiments, the documentdestruction device only destroys documents other than currency bills. Inother embodiments, the document destruction device only destroys casinocashout tickets. Yet in other embodiments, the document processingdevice 100 and the document destruction device can be configured todestroy or preserve any combination of documents.

The document destruction device can include, for example, mechanicaldevices assuring complete destruction (e.g., shredding and/ordisintegrating documents using a mechanical shredder, press, etc.) ormechanical devices for causing a less than complete obliteration of thedocuments (e.g., using a marking, perforation, or printing device whichwould leave the document substantially intact, but clearly notredeemable or capable of recirculation). In other aspects, it iscontemplated that document destruction devices can includestate-changing devices for producing an irreversible change of state tothe documents by chemical and/or incendiary processes (e.g., laserincineration).

Now turning to FIG. 42, a flowchart illustrating some embodiments of thepresent disclosure is shown. At step 4200, a stack of documents isplaced into the input receptacle of a document processing device. Atstep 4205, the document processing device obtains a transaction/useridentification number.

The transaction/user identification number provides a mechanism to linkthe user or operator who is processing one or more batched of documentsincluding, but not limited to, just currency bills, just substitutecurrency media, or both currency bills and substitute currency media, tothe processed documents themselves. The transaction/user identificationnumber may be any type of identifier, such as a casino name, time and/ordate of transaction, employee name, an account number, PIN, merchantnumber, social security number, employee number, driver's licensenumber, credit/debit/smart card number, and bar coded or other encodednumber. The transaction/user identification number may be encoded basedon user name or any other identifying number (such as driver's licensenumber or social security number). The transaction/user identificationnumber may also be an alphanumeric code, a fingerprint, or biometricscan. The transaction/user identification number may also be obtained bya video image of the user/operator or any other known way to identify aperson. The transaction/user identification number may be obtained inany number of ways by an identification input device (such as entrythrough the operator control panel or customer control panel). Otheroptions for the input device include a card reader or perhaps the imagescanner itself. With respect to the latter option, the number may beread off an encoded sheet, such as a bar encoded slip or a MICR encodedslip, which is input for processing through the document processingdevice 100. For the control panel option, the number may be input intothe device by the operator or by the user. If a card reader is availableon the document processing device 100, the number may be read from aninserted debit/credit/smart card that is input into the documentprocessing device 100. More generally, the transaction/useridentification input device may be any known device capable of receivingcommands, such as a keyboard, a keypad, a touch screen, or a mouse,and/or may also be any type of reader, such as a MICR reader, a bar codereader, an optical reader, biometric reader or others known in the art.

The documents are then transported by the transport mechanism one at atime (4210). Each transported document is then scanned in step 4215. Asdiscussed above, this scanning operation may involve optically scanningeach document to obtain a document image of one or both sides of thedocument. The document image may be an image of substantially the entiredocument (a “full image”) or of selected portions (a “partial image”) ofthe document. Alternatively or additionally, a line or strip reflectivescanning operation may be performed. Other scanning operations may alsobe used. The performance of step 4215 produces scan data. At step 4220,this scan data is processed to identify certain information of interestwith respect to each document. For example, the identified informationof interest may comprise the characters printed in one or more fields ofthe document. The identified information of interest may also compriseprinted features, patterns or relationships on the document. Even morespecifically, the identified information of interest comprises currencybill serial number data or substitute currency media ticket number data.

In step 4225, the information of interest from the document is stored inmemory in association with the transaction/user identification number.In this way, the information of interest is linked to a certain user oroperator and that user's transaction.

Turning now to FIG. 43, a flowchart describing some embodiments of thepresent disclosure is now described. A stack of documents which includescurrency bills and substitute currency media is inserted into the inputreceptacle at step 4202. Next, at step 4207, a user/operator identifieris obtained. The user/operator identifier may be, for example, any ofthe transaction/user identifications described above. Next, at step4212, document identification characteristic information is obtained.The document identification characteristic information is anyinformation that may uniquely identify the document that is beingpresented, such as a serial number, a ticket number, account number,document number, bar code, or another encoded or encrypted identifier.The document identification characteristic information may be encodedinformation. The document identification characteristic information maybe in the form of numbers, letters, and/or symbols (e.g., barcode) aswell as other printed or recognizable indicia.

As discussed above, the document identification characteristicinformation may be obtained by obtaining an image scan (full or partial)of the document. From the image scan, the characteristic information maybe obtained by using optical character recognition (OCR) software foridentifying the characters printed in the character information fieldsof the documents. For example, if the character information is theserial number, the OCR may search the full image for a serial number andthen extract the serial number once the field is located. For anotherexample, if the character information is the ticket number, the OCR maysearch the full image for a ticket number and then extract the ticketnumber once the field is located.

Next, in step 4217, the document identification characteristicinformation is associated with the user/operator identifier so that thedocument under examination can be linked for tracking and tracingpurposes with the transaction. As discussed above, this can beaccomplished by storing the data (characteristic information andcustomer identifier) in a memory. In the memory, the document is linkedto the user/operator by tying the characteristic information to theuser/operator identifier. For example, if the characteristic informationis obtained via image scanning, the user/operator identifier, as well asthe characteristic information, could be tagged onto the image file.Alternatively, the characteristic information can be stored in a memoryin a file dedicated to the user/operator (as identified by theuser/operator identifier). This way, someone searching the memory forthe document or characteristic information could see that it is storedunder a specific user/operator's identifier.

The document processing device 100 shown and described in connectionwith FIGS. 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c processes documents at a rate equal to orgreater than 600 documents per minute. In other embodiments, documentsare processed at a rate equal to or greater than 800 documents perminute. In still other embodiments, documents are processed at a rateequal to or greater than 1000 documents per minute. In yet otherembodiments, documents are processed at a rate equal to or greater than1200 documents per minute. In still other embodiments, documents areprocessed at a rate equal to or greater than 1500 documents per minute.In yet other embodiments, documents are processed at a rate less than600 documents per minute.

According to some embodiments, the document processing device 100includes an input receptacle 102, a currency detector 110, a mediadetector 112, an image scanner, at least one authentication detector, atransport mechanism 106, and at least one output receptacle 108.According to some embodiments, the document processing device 100processes documents at a rate of at least about 1000 documents perminute. According to some embodiments, the document processing device100 processes documents at a rate of at least about 1500 documents perminute. According to some embodiments, the processing of documents atthe above processing rates includes the following: (1) transportingdocuments including at least currency bills and substitute currencymedia, one document at a time, from the input receptacle 102 to the atleast one output receptacle 108, (2) denominating all of the currencybills with the currency detector 110, (3) scanning barcodes on all ofthe substitute currency media with the media detector 112, (4) imagingall of the substitute currency media to produce a raw image file foreach scanned substitute currency medium, the raw image file having animage resolution of approximately 100 DPI by approximately 100 DPI (5)authenticating all of the currency bills using the at least oneauthentication detector, and (6) saving an image file for each of theimages of the substitute currency media to a storage device in thedocument processing device 100.

According to some embodiments, the raw image file has an imageresolution of approximately 200 DPI by approximately 100 DPI. Yetaccording to some embodiments, the raw image file has an imageresolution of approximately 200 DPI by approximately 200 DPI. It iscontemplated that the above processing rates are also applicable tovarious combinations of image file resolutions less than approximately200 DPI by approximately 200 DPI.

According to some embodiments, the processing of documents at the aboverates can further include: (7) prior to saving the image file, croppingeach of the raw image files, thereby reducing the electronic file size,(8) deskewing the raw image file to square-up or orientate the raw imagefile in a predetermined manner and/or direction, and (9) compressing theraw image file to further reduce the electronic file size. In someembodiments, compressing the raw image file converts the raw image file,sometimes called a TIFF file, into a JPEG file. Other file formats arecontemplated including, but not limited to, GIF file format, MPEG fileformat, and BMP file format.

According to some embodiments, the processing of documents at the aboverates can further include: (10) sorting the substitute currency mediafrom the currency bills and further sorting the currency bills bydenomination into separate output receptacles.

According to some embodiments, the processing of documents at the aboverates can further include: (11) after scanning and imaging each of thesubstitute currency medium, transporting the substitute media to adocument destruction device to destroy each of the substitute currencymedium.

According to some embodiments, the processing of documents at the aboverates can further include: (12) prior to destroying each of thesubstitute currency medium, performing an image quality check of theimage files of each of the substitute currency medium.

According to some embodiments, the document processing device 100includes an input receptacle 102, an image scanner, a transportmechanism 106, and at least one output receptacle 108. According to someembodiments, the document processing device 100 processes documents at arate of at least about 1000 documents per minute. According to someembodiments, the document processing device 100 processes documents at arate of at least about 1500 documents per minute. According to someembodiments, the processing of documents at the above processing ratesincludes at least the following: (1) transporting documents including atleast currency bills and substitute currency media, one document at atime, from the input receptacle 102 to the at least one outputreceptacle 108, (2) imaging all of the documents to produce a raw imagefile for each of the documents, the raw image file having an imageresolution of approximately 100 DPI by approximately 100 DPI (3)denominating all of the currency bills from the raw image files, (4)using software to decode a barcoded pattern on each substitute currencymedium raw image file, and (5) saving an image file for each of theimages of the documents to a storage device in the document processingdevice 100.

It is contemplated that according to some embodiments the imageresolution is sufficient to allow a controller and/or a processor todenominate the currency bills from the raw image file and/or from animage file created from the raw image file. It is also contemplated thataccording to some embodiments the image resolution is sufficient toallow a controller and/or a processor to decode a barcoded pattern inthe raw image file and/or in an image file created from the raw imagefile. For example, in some embodiments, the raw image file has an imageresolution of approximately 200 DPI by approximately 100 DPI. Yetaccording to some embodiments, the raw image file has an imageresolution of approximately 200 DPI by approximately 200 DPI. It iscontemplated that the above processing rates are also applicable tovarious combinations of image file resolutions less than approximately200 DPI by approximately 200 DPI.

According to some embodiments, the processing of documents at the aboverates can further include: (6) prior to saving the image file, croppingeach of the raw image files, thereby reducing the electronic file size,(7) deskewing the raw image file to square-up or orientate the raw imagefile in a predetermined manner and/or direction, and (8) compressing theraw image file to further reduce the electronic file size.

According to some embodiments, the processing of documents at the aboverates can further include: (9) sorting the substitute currency mediafrom the currency bills and further sorting the currency bills bydenomination into separate output receptacles.

According to some embodiments, the processing of documents at the aboverates can further include: (10) after scanning and imaging each of thesubstitute currency medium, transporting the substitute media to adocument destruction device to destroy each of the substitute currencymedium.

According to some embodiments, the processing of documents at the aboverates can further include: (11) prior to destroying each of thesubstitute currency medium, performing an image quality check of theimage files of each of the substitute currency medium.

The document processing device 100 shown and described in connectionwith FIGS. 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c represents but one of numerous embodimentsinto which the evaluation region 104 may be incorporated. It isexpressly understood that the document processing device 100 shown anddescribed in connection with FIGS. 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c may be modified inaccordance with numerous other embodiments. For example, as explainednext, the device 100 may be modified in accordance with any one or moreof the following embodiments:

-   -   (1) a multi-pocket document processing device having a plurality        of output receptacles and incorporating any embodiment of the        evaluation region 104 shown or described in connection with        FIGS. 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c;    -   (2) a document processing device having a single output        receptacle and incorporating any embodiment of the evaluation        region 104 shown or described in connection with FIGS. 1 a, 1 b,        and 1 c;    -   (3) a document processing device having dual output receptacles        and incorporating any embodiment of the evaluation region 104        shown or described in connection with FIGS. 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c;    -   (4) any of the foregoing embodiments (1)-(3) may be coupled to a        coin sorting device;    -   (5) a funds processing device capable of processing both        documents and coins and incorporating any embodiment of the        evaluation region 104 shown or described in connection with        FIGS. 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c;    -   (6) any of the foregoing embodiments (1)-(5) may be        communicatively coupled to a computer network, such as a casino        gaming network or a retailer network;    -   (7) any of the foregoing embodiments (1)-(6) may include a        control unit for receiving operator instructions and displaying        information to an operator;    -   (8) any of the foregoing embodiments (1)-(7) may include a        document destruction device;    -   (9) any of the foregoing embodiments (1)-(8) may include an        image quality check routine;    -   (10) a system employing a plurality of document processing        devices according to any of the foregoing embodiments (1)-(9);        and    -   (11) a system employing a document processing device according        to any of the foregoing embodiments (1)-(9) capable of        processing currency bills and barcoded tickets imprinted or        embedded with at least two barcoded patterns.

Document Processing Device Having Multiple Output Receptacles

As discussed above, according to some embodiments, the evaluation region104 shown and described in connection with FIG. 1 b is incorporated intoa document processing device having multiple output receptacles. Inaccordance with such embodiments, FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate several viewsof a multi-pocket document processing device 200. A stack of currencybills and substitute currency media are provided to an input receptacle202 in any order or in a predetermined order. The currency bills andsubstitute media may be facing one orientation or facing mixedorientations. The currency bills and substitute currency media are fed,one by one, into a transport mechanism 206. The transport mechanism 206transports currency bills and substitute currency media to one of aplurality of output receptacles 208 a-208 h, which may include upperoutput receptacles 208 a, 208 b, as well as lower output receptacles 208c-208 h. Before a document reaches an output receptacle 208, thetransport mechanism 206 guides it through an evaluation region 204 wherea document can be, for example, analyzed, authenticated, denominated,counted, validated, and/or otherwise processed. In alternativeembodiments of the device 200, the evaluation region 204 can determinedocument orientation, document size, or whether documents are stackedupon one another. The results of the above process or processes may beused to determine to which output receptacle 208 a document is directed.The illustrated embodiment of the document processing device 200 has anoverall width, W₁, of approximately 4.87 feet (1.46 meters), a height,H₁, of approximately 4.85 feet (1.45 meters), and a depth, D₁, ofapproximately 1.67 feet (0.50 meters).

In the illustrated embodiment, interposed in the transport mechanism206, intermediate the evaluation region 204 and the lower outputreceptacles 208 c-208 h, is a document facing mechanism designatedgenerally by reference numeral 203. The document facing mechanism 203 iscapable of rotating a document (i.e., a currency bill or substitutecurrency medium) 180° so that the face position of the document isreversed. That is, if a U.S. currency bill, for example, is initiallypresented with the surface bearing a portrait of a president facingdown, it may be directed to the document facing mechanism 203, whereuponit will be rotated 180° so that the surface with the portrait faces up.The leading edge of the document remains constant while the document isbeing rotated 180° by the document facing mechanism 203. The decisionmay be taken to send a document to the document facing mechanism 203when the selected mode of operation or other operator instructions callfor maintaining a given face position of documents as they are processedby the device 200. For example, it may be desirable in certaincircumstances for all of the currency bills ultimately delivered to thelower output receptacles 208 c-208 h to have the currency bill surfacebearing the portrait of the president facing up. In such embodiments ofthe device 200, the evaluation region 204 is capable of determining theface position of a bill, such that a bill not having the desired faceposition can first be directed to the document facing mechanism 203before being delivered to the appropriate output receptacle 208. Furtherdetails of a document facing mechanism which may be utilized for thispurpose are disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,074,334,entitled “Document Facing Method and Apparatus,” which issued on Jun.13, 2000, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and may beemployed in conjunction with the present invention such as the deviceillustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. Another document facing mechanism whichmay be employed in another embodiment is disclosed in commonly assigned,U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,303, entitled “Two Belt Bill Facing Mechanism,”issued on Apr. 16, 2002, which is herein incorporated by reference inits entirety. Alternative embodiments of the device 200 do not includethe document facing mechanism 203.

The document processing device 200 in FIG. 2 may be controlled from aseparate control unit 216 which has a display/user-interface 217. In oneembodiment of the present invention, the display/user-interface 217incorporates a touch panel display which displays information including“functional” keys when appropriate. The display/user-interface 217 maybe a full graphics display. Alternatively, additional physical keys orbuttons, such as a keyboard 219, may be employed. The control unit 216may be a self-contained desktop or laptop computer which communicateswith the device 200 via a cable 221. In one embodiment, the device 200includes a suitable communications port (not shown) for this purpose. Inanother embodiment, the control unit 216 communicates with the device200 wirelessly via a wireless modem (not shown). In embodiments in whichthe control unit 216 is a desktop computer wherein thedisplay/user-interface 217 and the desktop computer are physicallyseparable, the desktop computer may be stored within a compartment 225of the device 200. In other alternative embodiments, the control unit216 is integrated into the device 200 so that the control unit 216 iscontained within the device 200. In this embodiment, thedisplay/user-interface 217 may comprise a touch screen or touch paneldisplay that is coupled to the device 200.

The operator can control the operation of the device 200 through thecontrol unit 216. By selecting various user-defined modes through thecontrol unit 216, such as via an input device such as a keyboard 219, ora switch, button, or touch screen (not shown), the operator can directcurrency bills and substitute media into specific output receptacles,such as output receptacles 208 a-208 h. Note that fewer or more outputreceptacles may be employed in alternate embodiments. In still otherembodiments, the user can select pre-programmed modes or create newuser-defined modes based on the particular requirements of theapplication. For example, the operator may select a user-defined modewhich instructs the device 200 to sort currency bills by denomination;accordingly, the evaluation region 204 would denominate the bills anddirect one dollar bills into the first lower output receptacle 208 c,five dollar bills into the second lower output receptacle 108 d, tendollar bills into the third lower output receptacle 208 e, twenty dollarbills into the forth lower output receptacle 208 f, fifty dollar billsinto the fifth lower output receptacle 208 g, and one-hundred dollarbills into the sixth lower output receptacle 208 h. The operator mayalso instruct the device 200 to deliver those bills whose denominationwas not determined, i.e., no call bills, to the first upper outputreceptacle 208 a. In such an embodiment, the upper output receptacle 208a would function as a reject pocket. In an alternative embodiment, theoperator may instruct the device 200 to also evaluate the authenticityof each currency bill. In such an embodiment, authentic bills would bedirected to the appropriate lower output receptacles 208 c-208 h. Thosebills that were determined not to be authentic, i.e., suspect bills,would be delivered to the second upper output receptacle 208 b. Amultitude of user defined modes are disclosed in commonly assigned U.S.Pat. No. 6,278,795, previously incorporated by reference, which may beemployed in conjunction with the present invention such as the deviceillustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. According to another embodiment, thedevice 200 is adapted to process documents according to a strapping modeof operation as shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,460,705, entitled“Method of Creating Identifiable Smaller Stacks of Currency Bills Withina Larger Stack of Currency Bills,” which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety. According to another embodiment, the device200 is adapted to process and strap documents using a strapping unit3550 as shown and described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.No. 10/460,071, entitled “Currency Processing and Strapping Systems andMethods,” which was filed on Jun. 12, 2003, and is incorporated hereinby reference in its entirety. According to still another embodiment, thedevice 200 is adapted to process documents according to adisable-pockets mode of operation as shown and described in co-pendingU.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/688,538, entitled “Currency HandlingSystem Having Multiple Output Receptacles,” which was filed on Oct. 16,2000 and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

It should be noted that the control unit 216 provides the operator witha broad range of flexibility in selecting which output receptaclesreceive which documents. For example, the operator may instruct thedevice 200 to sort the currency bills by denomination and to deliverauthentic currency bills according to their denomination into selectedones of the output receptacles 208 c-208 h. The operator may furtherinstruct the device 200 to deliver no call bills and suspect bills intooutput receptacle 208 a, and to deliver substitute currency media intooutput receptacle 208 b. In addition, the device 200 may be unable toevaluate a particular document because, for example, it is damaged orexcessively worn. The operator may instruct the device 200 to deliverany substitute currency media that cannot be evaluated to the outputreceptacle 108 a. Alternatively, additional output receptacles (notshown) may be employed to receive any combination of no call bills,suspect bills, valid substitute currency media, or invalid substitutecurrency media. The delivery of such documents may occur withoutsuspension of operation of the device 200, or with suspension of theoperation of the device 200, as explained next.

According to some embodiments, the device 200 is configured so that whenthe evaluation region 204 is unable to identify certain criteriaregarding a currency bill or substitute currency medium, theunidentified document is flagged and “presented” in one of the outputreceptacles 208 a-208 h, that is, the transport mechanism 206 issuspended or halted so that the unidentified document is located at apredetermined position within one of the output receptacles 208 a-208 h,such as being the last document transported to one of the outputreceptacles. In the case of currency bills, such criteria can includedenominating information, authenticating information, informationindicative of the currency bill's series, or other information theevaluation region 204 is attempting to obtain pursuant to a mode ofoperation. In the case of substitute currency media, such criteria mayinclude, in addition to or exclusive of the criteria mentioned above,whether information, such as a valid barcode, is detected on thesubstitute currency media.

The user may determine in which output receptacle 208 a-208 h theflagged document is presented according to a selected mode of operation.For example, where the unidentified document is the last documenttransported to an output receptacle 208 a-208 h, it may be positionedwithin a stacker wheel or positioned at the top of the documents alreadywithin the output receptacle 208 a-208 h. While unidentified documentsmay be transported to any output receptacles 208 a-208 h, it may be moreconvenient for the operator to have unidentified documents transportedto one of the upper output receptacles 208 a,b, which are positionedsuch that the operator is able to easily see and/or inspect the documentwhich has not been identified by the evaluation region 204. The operatormay then either visually inspect the flagged document while it isresting on the top of the stack, or the operator may decide to removethe document from the output receptacle 208 in order to examine theflagged document more closely. In an alternative embodiment of thedevice 200, the control unit 216 may communicate to the user via thedisplay/user-interface 217 information identifying which one of theoutput receptacles 108 a-108 h a flagged document is presented.

The device 200 may be adapted to continue operation automatically when aflagged document is removed from the upper output receptacle 208 a,b or,according to one embodiment of the present invention, the device 200 maybe adapted to suspend or halt operation and require input from theoperator via the control unit 216. Upon examination of a flaggeddocument by the operator, it may be found that the flagged document isgenuine or valid even though it was not identified as such by theevaluation region 204 or the evaluation region 204 may have been unableto denominate the flagged document. However, because the document wasnot identified, the total value and/or denomination counters will notreflect its value. According to one embodiment, such an unidentifieddocument is removed from the output receptacles 208 and reprocessed orset aside. According to another embodiment, the flagged documents mayaccumulate in the upper output receptacles 208 a,b until the batch ofdocuments currently being processed is completed or the outputreceptacle 208 a,b is full and then reprocessed or set aside. In yetanother embodiment, the control unit 216 of the device 200 includesdenomination keys, such as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.5,790,697, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.Upon inspection of a flagged currency bill, such as a no call bill, theoperator may manually key in the denomination of the bill via adenomination key, and resume operation. In the case of a substitutecurrency media, the operator may manually enter into the device 200 viathe control unit 216 information about the substitute currency media.Such information may include the barcode number when the substitutecurrency media is a barcoded ticket, the “denomination” of thesubstitute currency media, such as a $5 Disney Dollar, the valueassociated with the barcoded ticket, such as $100, and other identifyinginformation.

According to other embodiments, when a document is flagged, thetransport mechanism may be stopped before the flagged document istransported to one of the output receptacles. Such an embodiment isparticularly suited for situations in which the operator need notexamine the document being flagged; for example, the device 200 isinstructed to first process United States currency and then Britishcurrency pursuant to a selected mode of operation where the device 200processes United States $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 currency billsinto the lower output receptacles 208 c-208 h, respectively. Upondetection of the first British pound note, the device 200 may haltoperation allowing the operator to empty the lower output receptacles208 c-208 h and to make any spatial adjustments necessary to accommodatethe British currency. A multitude of modes of operation which may beemployed in conjunction with the present invention are described inconjunction with bill flagging, presenting, and/or transport halting incommonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,819 entitled “Method and Apparatusfor Document Processing,” which is herein incorporated by reference inits entirety.

In the illustrated embodiment, with regard to the upper outputreceptacles 208 a and 208 b, the second upper output receptacle 208 b isprovided with a stacker wheel 227 for accumulating a number ofdocuments, while the first upper output receptacle 208 a is not providedwith such a stacker wheel. Thus, when, pursuant to a preprogrammed modeof operation or a user-selected mode or other operator instructions, adocument is to be fed to the first upper output receptacle 208 a, theremay be a further instruction to momentarily suspend operation of thedevice 200 for the operator to inspect and remove the document. On theother hand, it may be possible to allow a number of documents toaccumulate in the first upper output receptacle 208 a before operationis suspended or halted. Similarly, the second upper output receptacle208 b may be utilized initially as an additional one of the lower outputreceptacles 208 c-208 h. However, in the illustrated embodiment shown inFIG. 2, there is no storage cassette associated with the second upperoutput receptacle 208 b. Therefore, when the second upper outputreceptacle 208 b is full, operation may be suspended to remove thedocuments at such time as yet further documents are directed to thesecond upper output receptacle 208 b in accordance with the selectedmode of operation or other operator instructions. According to analternative embodiment of the device 200, both the first and the secondupper output receptacles 208 a, 208 b are equipped with a stacker wheel.According to such an embodiment both the upper output receptacles 208 a,208 b may also function as the lower output receptacle 208 c-208 h,thereby allowing a number of documents to be stacked therein. In yetanother embodiment, the first upper output receptacle 208 a and thesecond upper output receptacle 208 b are not provided with a stackerwheel 227.

FIGS. 4 a and 4 b illustrate the evaluation region 204 according to oneembodiment of the device 200. The evaluation region 204 can be openedfor service, access to sensors, to clear document jams, etc., as shownin FIG. 4 a. Additional details of the evaluation region 204 areprovided with reference to the evaluation region 104 shown and describedin FIG. 1 b. As previously explained, the evaluation region 204 shown inFIG. 4 a may employ any combination of the following detection meanswithout limitation in one or more alternate embodiments: a sizedetection and density sensor 408, a lower optical scan head 410, anupper optical scan head 412, a single or multitude of magnetic sensors414, a thread sensor 416, an infrared sensor (not shown), anultraviolet/fluorescent light scan head 418, an upper media detector 403a, or a lower media detector 403 b. As noted in connection with FIG. 1b, these detection means may be disposed in any order and on either orboth sides of the transport plate 400 without departing from the presentinvention. These detection means and a host of others are disclosed incommonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,795, entitled “Multi-PocketCurrency Discriminator,” previously incorporated by reference, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/965,428, entitled “A Document ProcessingSystem Using Full Image Scanning,” filed on Sep. 27, 2001, alsopreviously incorporated by reference. As noted above, in the specificcase of substitute currency media, the variables may also relate to whatdistinguishing characteristics of the substitute currency media arebeing examined, such as any combination of the following withoutlimitation: a barcode, a MICR pattern, OCR-readable information,including information printed according to the OCR-A and OCR-B fonts, amagnetic pattern, an OVD pattern such as a hologram, a magnetic threador an electrically conductive thread, conductive ink, or an electricallyconductive polymer.

The direction of document travel through the evaluation region 204 isindicated by arrow A in FIG. 4 a. The documents (i.e., currency billsand/or substitute currency media) are positively driven along atransport plate 400 through the evaluation region 204 by means of atransport roll arrangement comprising both driven rollers 402 andpassive rollers 404. The rollers 402 are driven by a motor (not shown)via a belt 401. Passive rollers 404 are mounted in such a manner as tobe freewheeling about their respective axis and biased intocounter-rotating contact with the corresponding driven rollers 402. Thedriven and passive rollers 402, 404 are mounted so that they aresubstantially coplanar with the transport plate 400. The transport rollarrangement also includes compressible rollers 406 to aid in maintainingthe documents flat against the transport plate 400. Maintaining thedocument flat against the transport plate 400 so that the document liesflat when transported past the sensors enhances the overall reliabilityof the evaluation processes. A similar transport arrangement isdisclosed in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,963, entitled “Methodand Apparatus for Discriminating and Counting Documents,” which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Additional details concerning the input receptacle 202, transportmechanism 206, and diverters 237 are disclosed in commonly assigned U.S.Pat. No. 6,398,000, entitled “Currency Handling System Having MultipleOutput Receptacles,” issued on Jun. 4, 2002, which is hereinincorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIGS. 4 a-1 and 4 b-1 illustrate the evaluation region 204 according toanother embodiment of the device 200. Similar to the previousembodiment, the evaluation region 204 can be opened for service, accessto sensors, to clear document jams, etc., as shown in FIG. 4 a-1.Additional details of the evaluation region 204 are provided withreference to the evaluation region 104 shown and described in FIG. 1 b.The evaluation region 204 shown in FIG. 4 a-1 may employ any combinationof the following detection means without limitation in one or morealternate embodiments: a density sensor 408 a, a lower optical scan head410 a, an upper optical scan head 412 a, a single or multitude ofmagnetic sensors 414 a, an infrared sensor (not shown), anultraviolet/fluorescent light scan head 418 a. The density sensor 408 acan detect both density and one dimension of a document. As noted inconnection with FIG. 1 b, these detection means may be disposed in anyorder and on either or both sides of the transport plate 400 a withoutdeparting from the present invention.

The direction of document travel through the evaluation region 204 isindicated by arrow A in FIG. 4 a. The documents (i.e., currency billsand/or substitute currency media) are positively driven along atransport plate 400 a through the evaluation region 204 by means of atransport roll arrangement comprising both driven rollers 402 a andpassive rollers 404 a. The rollers 402 a are driven by a motor (notshown) via a belt 401 a. Passive rollers 404 a are mounted in such amanner as to be freewheeling about their respective axis and biased intocounter-rotating contact with the corresponding driven rollers 402 a.The driven and passive rollers 402 a, 404 a are mounted so that they aresubstantially coplanar with the transport plate 400 a. The transportroll arrangement also includes compressible rollers 406 a to aid inmaintaining the documents flat against the transport plate 400 a.Maintaining the document flat against the transport plate 400 a so thatthe document lies flat when transported past the sensors enhances theoverall reliability of the evaluation processes.

Referring back to FIG. 2, the illustrated embodiment of the device 200includes a total of six lower output receptacles 208 c-208 h. Morespecifically, each of the lower output receptacles 208 c-208 h includesa first portion designated as an escrow compartment 205 a-205 f and asecond portion designated as a storage cassette 207 a-207 f. Typically,documents are initially directed to the escrow compartments 205, andthereafter at specified times or upon the occurrence of specifiedevents, which may be selected or programmed by an operator, documentsare then fed to the storage cassettes 207. The storage cassettes 207 areremovable and replaceable, such that stacks of documents totaling apredetermined number of documents or a predetermined monetary value maybe accumulated in a given storage cassette 207, whereupon the cassettemay be removed and replaced with an empty storage cassette. In theillustrated embodiment, there are six lower output receptacles 208 c-208h which include escrow compartments 205 and storage cassettes 207 a-207f. In alternative embodiments, the device 200 may contain more or lessthan six lower output receptacles which include escrow compartments 205and storage cassettes 207. In other alternative embodiments, modularlower output receptacles 208 may be implemented to add many more loweroutput receptacles to the device 200. Each modular unit may comprise twolower output receptacles. In other alternative embodiments, severalmodular units may be added at one time to the device 200.

A series of diverters 237 a-237 f, which are a part of the transportmechanism 206, direct the documents to one of the lower outputreceptacles 208 c-208 h. When the diverters 237 are in an upperposition, the documents are directed to the adjacent lower outputreceptacle 208. When the diverters 237 are in a lower position, thedocuments proceed in the direction of the next diverter 237.Alternatively, the operator may instruct the device 200 to directsubstitute currency media to one or more of the upper output receptacles208 a-208 b such that only currency bills are presented to the diverters237 a-237 f.

Additional details concerning the lower output receptacles 208 c-208 h,the escrow compartments 205, and the storage cassettes 207 are disclosedin commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,398,000, entitled “CurrencyHandling System Having Multiple Output Receptacles,” incorporated byreference above. It should be emphasized that the operator may alsoinstruct the device 200 to direct substitute currency media to one ormore of the lower output receptacles 208. In the illustrated embodiment,only currency bills are directed to the lower output receptacles 208,however, in alternative embodiments, substitute currency media couldalso be directed to one or more of the lower output receptacles 208.

In some embodiments, the device 200 is dimensioned to process a stack ofdifferent sized currencies at the same time. In other embodiments, thedevice 200 can also be dimensioned to process a stack of different sizedcurrencies and substitute currency media at the same time. For example,one application may require the processing of United States dollars (2.5inches×6 inches, 6.5 cm×15.5 cm) and French currency (as large as 7.17inches×3.82 inches, 18.2 cm×9.7 cm). The application may simply requirethe segregation of the U.S. currency from the French currency whereinthe device 200 delivers U.S. currency to the first lower outputreceptacle 208 c and the French currency to the second output receptacle208 d. In still other embodiments, the device 200 processes a mixedstack of U.S. ten and twenty dollar bills and French one hundred and twohundred Franc notes wherein the currency documents are denominated,counted, and authenticated. In such embodiments, the U.S. ten and twentydollar bills are delivered to the first 208 c and second 208 d loweroutput receptacles, respectively, and the French one hundred and twohundred Franc notes are delivered to the third 208 e and fourth 208 flower output receptacle, respectively. In yet other embodiments, thedevice 200 denominates, counts, and authenticates six different types ofcurrency wherein, for example, Canadian currency is delivered to thefirst lower output receptacle 208 c, United States currency is deliveredto the second output receptacle 208 d, Japanese currency is delivered tothe third lower output receptacle 208 e, British currency is deliveredto the fourth lower output receptacle 208 f, French currency isdelivered to the fifth lower output receptacle 208 g, and Germancurrency is delivered to the sixth lower output receptacle 208 h. Instill other embodiments, no call bills or other denominations of foreigncurrency, such as Mexican currency for example, may be directed to thesecond upper output receptacle 208 b. In other embodiments, suspectbills are delivered to the first upper output receptacle 208 a. In stillother embodiments, U.S. currency and cashout tickets are delivered todifferent output receptacles. These embodiments represent just a fewexamples of the numerous combinations of U.S. currency bills, foreigncurrency bills, and substitute media that can be delivered to the outputreceptacles 208.

Additional details concerning the processing of foreign currency aredisclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,259, entitled “Methodand Apparatus for Discriminating and Counting Documents”; commonlyassigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,103, entitled “Method and Apparatus forAuthenticating and Discriminating Currency”; commonly assigned U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/626,324, entitled “Currency HandlingSystem Employing an Infrared Authenticating System,” filed Jul. 26,2000; and commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,493,461, entitled“Customizable International Note Counter,” each of which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

In other alternative embodiments of the device 200, the user can varythe type of documents delivered to the output receptacles 208. Forexample, in one alternative embodiment an operator can direct, via thecontrol unit 216 (shown in FIG. 2), that a stack of one, five, ten,twenty, fifty, and one-hundred United States dollar bills bedenominated, counted, authenticated, and directed into lower outputreceptacles 208 c-208 h, respectively. In still another alternativeembodiment, the device 200 is also instructed to deliver other currencybills, such as a United States two dollar bill or foreign currency billsthat have been mixed into the stack of documents, to the second upperoutput receptacle 208 b. In still another alternative embodiment, thedevice 200 is also instructed to count the number and aggregate value ofall the currency bills processed and the number and aggravate value ofeach individual denomination of currency bills processed. These valuesmay be communicated to the user via the display/user-interface 217 ofthe device 200. In addition, or alternatively, these values arecommunicated to a remote device via a communications port (not shown).

In still other alternative embodiments, no call bills and bills that arestacked upon one another are directed to the second upper outputreceptacle 208 b. In yet other alternative embodiments, the operator candirect that all documents failing an authentication test be delivered tothe first upper output receptacle 208 a. In still further embodiments,the operator instructs the device 200 to deliver no call bills, suspectbills, stacked bills, etc. to one of the lower output receptacles 208c-208 h. In yet other alternative embodiments, the currency bills aredirected to one or more of the lower output receptacles 208 c-208 h, nocall bills and suspect bills are directed to the upper output receptacle208 a, and substitute currency media are directed to the upper outputreceptacle 208 b. In still other embodiments, U.S. currency bills aredirected to selected ones of the lower output receptacles 208, foreigncurrency bills are directed to other lower output receptacles 208, nocall bills, suspect bills, and invalid substitute currency media (i.e.,media which cannot be identified) are directed to the first upper outputreceptacle 208 a, and valid substitute currency media are directed tothe second upper output receptacle 208 b. Alternatively, a third upperoutput receptacle (not shown) may receive invalid substitute currencymedia so as to keep all substitute currency media separate from currencybills.

In still other alternate embodiments, genuine U.S. currency bills andforeign currency bills and identified substitute currency are directedto selected ones of the lower output receptacles 208, unidentifiedsubstitute currency media are directed to the first upper outputreceptacle 208 a, and no call currency bills and suspect currency billsare directed to the second upper output receptacle 208 b. In short, thedevice 200 as illustrated having eight output receptacles 208 a-208 hprovides a great deal of flexibility to the operator. And in otheralternative embodiments of the currency handling device 200 with a feweror greater number of output receptacles 208, numerous differentcombinations for processing documents are available. What outputreceptacle receives which type of document, whether a U.S. currencybill, a foreign currency bill, or a substitute currency medium, isentirely customizable by the operator.

In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the various operations ofthe device 200 are controlled by processors disposed on a number ofprinted circuit boards (PCBs) located throughout the device 200. Furtherdetails concerning the PCBs are disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat.No. 6,398,000, entitled “Currency Handling System Having Multiple OutputReceptacles,” previously incorporated by reference.

Document Processing Device Having a Single Output Receptacle

The evaluation region 104 shown and described in connection with FIGS. 1a and 1 b can also be incorporated into a document processing devicehaving a single output receptacle. FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate a compactdocument processing device 500 according to one embodiment of thepresent invention. This device 500 is shown and described in more detailin commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,963 which is incorporated byreference in its entirety. In one embodiment, the device 500 is modifiedto include an evaluation region 104 as shown and described in connectionwith FIG. 1 b. Documents are fed, one by one, from a stack of documentsplaced in an input receptacle 502 onto a transport mechanism. Thetransport mechanism includes a transport plate or guide plate 606 forguiding a document to an output receptacle 608. Before reaching theoutput receptacle 508, the document can be, for example, evaluated,analyzed, counted and/or otherwise processed by an evaluation region604. In one embodiment of the device 500, documents are processed at arate in excess of 600 documents per minute. In another embodiment,documents are processed at a rate in excess of 800 documents per minute.In yet another embodiment, documents are processed at a rate in excessof 1000 documents per minute. In another embodiment, documents areprocessed at a rate in excess of 1200 documents per minute. In stillanother embodiment, documents are processed at a rate in excess of 1500documents per minute.

The device 500 in FIG. 5 has a touch panel display 516 in one embodimentof the present invention which displays “functional” keys whenappropriate. The touch panel display 516 simplifies the operation of thedevice 500. Alternatively or additionally physical keys, switches, orbuttons may be employed, such as, for example, a keypad. In oneembodiment, the touch panel display 516 includes denomination keys, suchas disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,697, previouslyincorporated by reference. The operator may also manually enter, via thetouch panel display 516, information about the substitute currencymedia, such as the information described above in connection with FIGS.2-3.

A pair of driven stacking wheels 527 a and 527 b are located in theoutput receptacle 508 and come into contact with the documents as thedocuments are transported into the output receptacle 508. The stackingwheels 527 a and 527 b are supported for rotational movement aboutrespective shafts journalled on a rigid frame and driven by a motor (notshown). Flexible blades of the stacker wheels 527 a and 527 b deliverthe documents onto a forward end of a stacker plate 652 shown in FIG. 6.In an alternate embodiments, the device 500 includes a stacking wheel527 a only, a stacking wheel 527 b only, or neither a stacking wheel 527a nor a stacking wheel 527 b.

According to one embodiment, the document scanning device 500 iscompact, having a height (H₁) of about 9½ to 10½ inches, width (WO ofabout 10¾ to 11¾ inches, and a depth (D₁) of about 12 to 16 inches.

Like the device 200 shown and described in connection with FIGS. 2-4 b,the device 500 shown and described in connection with FIGS. 5, 6 isadapted to halt or suspend operation when a no call or a suspect bill oran invalid substitute currency medium is detected. An operator of thedevice 500 may specify via the touch panel display 516 the location ofthe unidentified document, such as the last document to be presented tothe output receptacle 508 before operation is halted or suspended. Theoperator may further manually enter information about the invalidsubstitute currency medium, such as the information described above inconnection with FIGS. 2-3. In an embodiment in which the device 500includes denomination keys, the operator may select one of thedenomination keys after inspection of a no call bill or a suspect bill,and resume operation as if the no call bill or suspect bill had not beenflagged.

Document Processing Device Having Dual Output Receptacles

FIGS. 7 a and 7 b illustrate an exterior perspective view and a sidecross-sectional view, respectively, of a compact, document processingdevice 700 having dual output receptacles. The process for carryingdocuments through the device 700 is the same as discussed above, exceptthat the device 700 has first and second output receptacles, 708 a, 708b, respectively. A diverter 760, shown in FIG. 7 b, directs thedocuments to either the first or second output receptacle 708 a, 708 b.When the diverter 760 is in a lower position, documents are directed tothe first output receptacle 708 a. When the diverter 760 is in an upperposition, documents proceed in the direction of the second outputreceptacle 708 b. Details of devices with multiple output receptaclesare described in WO 97/45810 which is incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

FIG. 7 b shows a pair of stacker wheels 727 a, 727 b for deliveringdocuments to the first and second output receptacles 708 a, 708 b.However, in alternate embodiments, the device 700 includes the stackerwheel 727 a only, the stacker wheel 727 b only, or neither the stackerwheel 727 a nor the stacker wheel 727 b.

The device 700 includes an evaluation region 704, such as the evaluationregion 104 shown and described in connection with FIGS. 1 a and 1 b.

According to one embodiment the device 700 is compact having a height(H₂) of about 17½ inches, width (W₂) of about 13½ inches, and a depth(D₂) of about 15 inches. According to another embodiment, the device 700has dimensions of: a height (H₂) of about 18 inches; a width (W₂) ofabout 13¾ inches; and a depth (D₂) of about 16 inches. The device 700may be rested upon a tabletop, countertop, desk, or the like.

Like the embodiments described above in connection with a device havingmultiple output receptacles, the device 700 may be instructed by anoperator via a control unit 716, which may include a touch panel displayor other suitable interface, to direct certain documents to one or theother of the first and second output receptacles 708 a, 708 b. Thesemodes may be pre-programmed or operator-defined. For example, accordingto one embodiment, genuine currency bills and valid substitute currencymedia are directed to the first output receptacle 708 a, whereasnon-genuine currency bills and invalid substitute currency media aredirected to the second output receptacle 708 b. According to anotherembodiment, genuine currency bills are directed to the first outputreceptacle 708 a, valid substitute currency media are directed to thesecond output receptacle 708 b, and the device 700 is programmed to haltor suspend operation when a non-genuine currency bill or invalidsubstitute currency medium is detected by the evaluation region of thedevice 700. In one embodiment, the control unit 716 may includedenomination keys, such as explained above. The control unit 716 mayalso be adapted to permit the operator to manually enter informationabout a flagged substitute currency medium, such as the informationdescribed above in connection with FIGS. 2-3.

Document Processing Device Coupled to a Coin Sorting Device

In other embodiments, the evaluation region 104 shown and described inconnection with FIGS. 1 a and 1 b may be employed in a documentprocessing device according to any of the embodiments just describedwhich is coupled to a coin sorting device. In different embodiments, thecoin sorting device is adapted to sort coins only or a combination ofcoins and tokens.

FIG. 8 illustrates a functional block diagram of a document processingdevice 800 coupled to a coin sorting device 8000 in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. The document processing device 800includes a communications port 818 and a controller 814, and iscommunicatively coupled to the coin sorting device 8000 via a cable 876.The coin sorting device 8000 includes a communications port 8018 and acontroller 8014. The communications ports 818, 8018 may be any suitablecommunications port such as a serial or parallel port, USB port, and thelike. In an alternate embodiment, the document processing device 800 andthe coin sorting device 8000 communicate wirelessly, and the cable 876is not included. In this alternate embodiment, the communications ports818, 8018 are adapted to receive and transmit information wirelessly.

An operator places a stack of documents into the document processingdevice 800 for processing, and places a plurality of coins and/or tokensinto the coin sorting device 8000 for sorting and counting. The documentprocessing device 800 processes the stack of documents, and thecontroller 814 in the document processing device 800 stores informationrepresentative of the documents being processed, such as thedenomination of the currency bills, the value of the substitute currencymedia, the number of non-genuine currency bills, the number of invalidsubstitute currency media, and so forth. The coin sorting device 8000sorts and counts the coins or tokens, and the controller 8014 in thecoin sorting device 8000 stores information representative of the coinsor tokens being sorted and counted, such as the value and denominationof the coins (penny, dime, nickel, etc.), the number and kind of tokens,and so forth.

In some embodiments, the stored information in the coin sorting device8000 is transmitted to the controller 814 of the document processingdevice 800. The document processing device 800 organizes and presentsthe combined information to the operator via a display, such as amonitor or touch screen. In other embodiments, the stored information inthe document processing device 800 is transmitted to the controller 8014of the coin sorting device 8000, which organizes and presents theinformation combined from both devices to the operator via a display,such as a monitor or touch screen.

Referring now to FIG. 9, there is shown a coin sorter system 9000. Thecoin sorter system 9000 includes a coin tray 9002 which receives coinsof mixed denominations. The coins are sorted, counted, and are capturedin a plurality of coin bins 9008 positioned on the exterior of the coinsorter system 9000. In alternate embodiments, the coins are captured ina plurality of coin bags.

The coin sorter system 9000 includes a control panel 9016. In theillustrated embodiment, the control panel 9016 includes a display 9076for displaying information about the coin sorter system 9000 and aplurality of keys 9078 for allowing the operator to enter information tothe coin sorter system 9000. In some alternate embodiments, the controlpanel 9016 includes a touch screen.

Additional details concerning the coin sorter system 9000 are disclosedin commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,418, entitled “High Speed CoinSorter Having a Reduced Size,” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,395, entitled“High Speed Coin Sorter Having a Reduced Size,” each of which is hereinincorporated by reference in its entirety. In one embodiment, the coinsorter system 9000 shown in FIG. 9 is modified to include acommunications port such as the communications port 8018 one describedin connection with FIG. 8. The coin sorter system 9000 may be furthermodified to perform the coin sorting and authenticating functionsdisclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,299,977, 5,453,047, 5,507,379, 5,542,880,5,865,673 and 5,997,395, each of which is herein incorporated byreference in its entirety.

Funds Processing Machine

In some embodiments, the evaluation region 104 of FIG. 1 b may beincorporated into a funds processing machine capable of processing bothdocuments and coins.

Referring now to FIG. 10 a, a funds processing machine 1000 includes atouch screen 1016 to provide inputs from a user and to display outputsto be viewed by the user. While the touch screen 1016 is the preferredmode to enter data from the user, the funds processing machine 1000 mayalso include a mechanical keyboard, in addition to or in lieu of thetouch screen 1016, to receive such inputs.

The funds processing machine 1000 includes a coin receptacle 1044 whichreceives coins of a single denomination or of mixed denominations from auser. Additionally, an input receptacle 1002 is included within thefunds processing machine 1000. The input receptacle 1002 is illustratedin its open position in FIG. 10 a and may be retracted by the fundsprocessing machine 1000 once the bulk currency has been placed thereinby the user. These input devices 1044 and 1002 allow the user of thefunds processing machine 1000 to input his or her funds which willultimately be converted to some other sort of fund source that isavailable to the user. In addition to banknotes, the input receptacle1002 of the funds processing machine 1000 can also accommodate casinoscript, paper tokens, or bar coded tickets.

The funds processing machine 1000 includes a dispenser 1008 a and adispensed coin receptacle 1046 for dispensing to the user the desiredamount of funds in both bank notes and coins. A return slot 1008 b mayalso be included within the funds processing machine 1000 to returncurrency bills or substitute currency media to the user which cannot beauthenticated or otherwise processed. Coins which cannot beauthenticated may be returned to the user via the dispensed coinreceptacle 1046. The funds processing machine 1000 further includes adocument dispenser 1020 for providing a user with a receipt of thetransaction that he or she has performed.

In its simplest form, the funds processing machine 1000 receives funds(currency, coins, substitute currency media) via the coin inputreceptacle 1044 and the input receptacle 1002, and after these depositedfunds have been authenticated and counted, the funds processing machine1000 returns to the user an amount equal to the deposited funds but in adifferent variation of bank notes and coins. For example, the user ofthe funds processing machine 1000 may input $102.99 in various smallbank notes and pennies and in turn receive a $100 bank note, two $1 banknotes, three quarters, two dimes, and four pennies. Alternatively, thefunds processing machine 1000 may simply return a receipt of thetransaction or a barcoded ticket through the document dispenser 1020which the user can redeem for funds by an attendant of the fundsprocessing machine 1000. Alternatively, the funds processing machine1000 can credit a user's account.

The funds processing machine 1000 may also include a media reader slot1042 into which the user inserts his or her identification card so thatthe funds processing machine 1000 can identify the user. The touchscreen 1016 typically provides the user with a menu of options whichprompts the user to carry out a series of actions for identifying theuser by displaying certain commands and requesting that the user depresstouch keys on the touch screen 1016 (e.g., a user PIN). The fundsprocessing machine 1000 includes a card media reader device which iscapable of reading from or writing to one or more types of card media.This media may include various types of memory storage technology suchas magnetic storage, solid state memory devices, and optical devices.

FIG. 10 b illustrates the funds processing machine 1000 in a side viewillustrating the various modules. The document processing module 1004receives documents from the input receptacle 1002 for processing. Theinward movement of the input receptacle 1002 positions a stack ofdocuments at the feed station of the document scanning and countingdevice which automatically feeds, counts, scans, authenticates, andsorts the documents, one at a time at a high rate of speed (e.g., atleast 350 documents per minute). In place of or in addition to the inputreceptacle 1002, the funds processing machine 1000 may include a singledocument receptacle which receives and processes one document at a time.The documents that are recognized by the document processing module 1004are delivered to a storage area such as a currency canister (not shown).When a document cannot be recognized by the document processing module1004, it is returned to the customer through the return slot 1008 b.Exemplary machines which scan, sort, count, and authenticate currencybills as required by the bank note processing module are described inU.S. Pat. Nos. 5,295,196, 5,870,487 and 5,875,259, each of which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

In place of or in addition to the input receptacle 1002, the fundsprocessing machine 1000 may include an input receptacle slot whichreceives and processes one document at a time. Such an input receptacleslot would be placed at the front of the funds processing machine 1000.

Additional details of the funds processing machine 1000 are disclosed incommonly assigned, co-pending U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,537, entitled“Currency Processing Machine with Multiple Internal Coin Receptacles,”which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

In accordance with the present invention, the document processing module1004 of the funds processing machine 1000 shown in FIG. 10 b anddescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/562,231 is modified toincorporate the evaluation region 104 shown and described in connectionwith FIGS. 1 a and 1 b. The user deposits currency bills and substitutecurrency media into the input receptacle 1002. As described in moredetail below, the funds processing machine 1000 may be communicativelycoupled to a casino gaming network. In such an embodiment, a casinocustomer may deposit a stack of casino cashout tickets and currencybills into the input receptacle 1002, and the machine 1000 queries thecasino gaming network for the payout amounts associated with the casinocashout tickets. This payout amount may be added to the customer's totalsuch that the customer is dispensed (via the dispenser 1008 a forexample) the total amount of currency deposited plus the value of anypayout associated with valid cashout tickets.

The funds processing machine 1000 also includes a coin processing module1048. The coin processing module 1048 sorts, counts and authenticatesthe mixed coins which are deposited in the coin input receptacle 1044which leads directly into the coin processing module 1048. The coins aresorted in the coin processing module 1048 in a variety of ways but thepreferred method is a sorting based on the diameter of the coins. When anon-authenticated coin is determined by the coin processing module 1048,it is directed through a coin reject tube 1054 towards the dispensedcoin receptacle 1046. Thus, the user who has entered such anon-authenticated coin can retrieve the coin by accessing the dispensedcoin receptacle 1046. Coin sorting and authenticating devices which canperform the function of the coin processing module 1048 are disclosed inU.S. Pat. Nos. 5,299,977, 5,453,047, 5,507,379, 5,542,880, 5,865,673 and5,997,395, previously incorporated by reference. Alternatively, othercoins sorters such as a rail sorter can be used to perform the functionof the coin processing module 1048.

The funds processing machine 1000 further includes a document dispensingmodule 1040 which is connected via transport mechanism 1006 to thedispenser 1008 a that is accessible by the user. The document dispensingmodule 1040 typically dispenses loose bills in response to a request ofthe user for such bank notes. Also, the document dispensing module 1040may be configured to dispense strapped notes into the dispenser 1008 aif that is desired. In one embodiment of the present invention, the usermay select the denomination of the loose or strapped bills dispensed tothe user. As noted above, the document dispensing module 1040 ismodified in one embodiment to dispense both currency bills andsubstitute currency media. For example, in one embodiment, the documentdispensing module 1040 may return to the user invalid substitutecurrency media. In addition, as mentioned above, the document dispensingmodule 1040 may dispense a barcoded ticket which the customer may redeemfor funds.

The funds processing machine 1000 also includes a coin dispensing module1050 which dispenses loose coins to the user via the dispensed coinreceptacle 1046. The coin dispensing module 1050 is connected to thedispensed coin receptacle 1046 via a coin tube 1056. Thus, the user ofthe funds processing machine 1000 has the ability to select the desiredcoin denominations that he or she will receive in response to atransaction.

The coins which have been sorted into their denomination by the coinprocessing module 1048 are sent to coin tubes 1058 which correspond toeach specific denomination. The coin tubes 1058 lead to a coinreceptacle station 1052 for each of the denominations that are to besorted and authenticated by the coin processing module 1048.

The funds processing machine 1000 includes a controller 1014 which iscoupled to each module 1004, 1040, 1048, 1050 and 1052 within the fundsprocessing machine 1000 and controls the interaction between eachmodule. For example, the controller 1014 may review the input totalsfrom the funds processing modules 1004 and 1048 and direct anappropriate funds output via the funds dispensing modules 1040 and 1050.The controller 1014 also directs the operation of the coin receptaclestations 1052 as described below. While not shown, the controller 1014may also be coupled to a media reader associated with the media readerslot 1042 and also to a printer at the document dispenser 1020, if thesedevices are present in the funds processing machine 1000. The printer,for example, may print a barcoded ticket representative of the amount offunds deposited by the customer, or the printer may print a receipt ofthe transaction.

Document Processing Device Coupled to a Computer Network

According to some embodiments of the present invention, any of theforegoing systems may be communicatively coupled to a computer network,such as a casino gaming machine network or a retailer network. Examplesof such embodiments will be discussed next.

FIG. 11 illustrates a host system 1190 coupled to a plurality ofdocument processing devices 1100 a, 1100 b, . . . 1100 n. The documentprocessing devices 1100 a, 1100 b, . . . 1100 n may be any device shownor described in connection with FIGS. 2-10 b. The host system 1190 isfurther coupled to a computer network 1192. The computer network 1192provides the host system 1190 with real time information, such asinformation relating to the demands for particular types of coinreceptacles and information about the substitute currency media detectedby the document processing devices 1100 a-n. In alternate embodiments,the computer network 1192 may be a casino gaming machine network or aretailer network. Each of these embodiments is discussed next.

In one embodiment, the computer network 1192 is a casino gaming machinenetwork and includes a database for storing information about barcodedtickets that have been dispensed by the casino's gaming machines When abarcoded ticket is dispensed, the ticket number is stored in a databasealong with the payout amount. A barcode, such as barcode 138 shown inFIG. 1 b, encodes the ticket number and the payout amount. When thebarcoded ticket is deposited into the document processing device 1110,the evaluation unit 104 of the document processing device 1100 reads thebarcode on the barcoded ticket. If a valid barcode is read, the documentprocessing device 1100 transmits the barcode number to the host 1190.The host 1190 queries the computer network 1192 for the payout amountassociated with the barcoded number, and transmits the payout amountback to the document processing device 1100. The document processingdevice 1100 adds the payout amount to the running total of currencydeposited by the operator into the machine 1100.

Alternatively, the barcode numbers associated with barcoded ticketsidentified by the document processing device 1100 are stored in thedocument processing device 1100. These numbers are periodically providedto the casino gaming machine network 1192. The casino machine gamingnetwork 1192 may include a casino accounting system. The numbers arematched up with the payout amounts stored in a database associated withthe casino machine gaming network 1192, and the payout amounts may thenbe reconciled in the casino accounting system.

In another embodiment, the casino gaming machine network 1192 is aretailer network that includes a retailer database for storinginformation about promotional media. For example, a retailer customermay deposit both currency bills and substitute currency media such asstore coupons or gift certificates into a self-checkout station at thepoint of sale. The documents deposited at the self-checkout stations aredeposited into a document processing device 1100. Documents from cashregister tills may also be deposited into a document processing device1100. The document processing device 1100 rapidly processes thedocuments, and identifies the barcode numbers from the barcoded media.These barcode numbers are then transmitted to the retailer network whichdetermines the values associated with the barcode numbers (such as fiftycents off, or a $50 gift certificate) by querying the retailer database.These values are then reconciled in the retailer's accounting system.Optionally, these values may be transmitted back to the documentprocessing device 1100 for display to the customer.

Operation of Document Processing Device

Turning now to FIG. 12, there is shown a flowchart describing theoperation of a document processing device according to one embodiment ofthe present invention. Operation begins when an operator depositsdocuments into an input receptacle of a document processing device (step1200). Operation may commence automatically, such as when a sensordetects the presence of documents in the input receptacle, or manually,such as when the operator actuates a switch, key, or button on thedocument processing device. The documents may include a combination ofmixed currency bills and substitute currency media, or the documents mayinclude currency bills only or substitute currency media only.

In some embodiments, the input receptacle is adapted to receive a stackof documents. In other embodiments, the input receptacle is adapted toreceive one document at a time. The deposited documents are transported,one at a time, along a transport mechanism in the document processingdevice. In step 1202, a first document is transported past a mediadetector. In some embodiments, the media detector comprises a barcodereader adapted to scan for barcodes on a document. In step 1204, themedia detector provides a signal representative of whether a validsubstitute currency medium was detected. For example, if the barcodereader provides a “good read” signal in response to scanning the firstdocument, the first document is a valid medium. However, if the barcodeprovides a “no read” signal, the first document is not a valid medium.If the first document is a valid medium, the first document istransported to an output receptacle (step 1206). Which output receptaclereceives the first document depends on which output receptacle has beenspecified according to a preprogrammed or operator-defined mode. Ifthere is only one output receptacle on the document processing device,then the first document is transported to that output receptacle.

Note that between steps 1204 and 1206, in some embodiments, the firstdocument may be first transported to a bill facing mechanism beforebeing transported to an output receptacle. According to some of suchembodiments, the document processing device is adapted to determinewhich orientation the first document is facing, and if the firstdocument is facing the wrong orientation, it can be transported to abill facing mechanism. Alternatively, the desired face orientation canbe predetermined either by the manufacturer or the operator. In otherembodiments, the first document is not transported to a bill facingmechanism.

If a valid medium is not detected at step 1204, the document istransported past a currency detector at step 1208. If the currencydetector detects an authentic currency bill (step 1210), the firstdocument is transported to a pre-selected or operator-defined outputreceptacle at step 1212. The document processing device can alsodetermine the denomination of the currency bill, and transport the firstdocument to the appropriate output receptacle according tooperator-specified instructions or preprogrammed instructions. In someembodiments, a genuine currency bill may optionally be transported to adocument facing mechanism, such as the document facing mechanism 203shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, for proper orientation before being transportedto an output receptacle if the currency detector determines that thecurrency bill is not properly oriented.

In other embodiments, steps 1208 and 1202 are reversed, such that adocument is first transported past a currency detector and then past amedia detector. In still other embodiments, steps 1202 and 1208 (orsteps 1208 and 1202) are performed before steps 1204 and 1210 (or steps1210 and 1204). In other words, in these other embodiments, thedocuments are transported past the media and currency detectors (in anyorder), and then the document processing device determines whether thedocument is a valid medium or authentic currency bill. Note that in theembodiments in which the document processing device has only a singleoutput receptacle, steps 1206 and 1212 are identical because both validmedia and authentic currency are transported to the same outputreceptacle.

At step 1214, the document processing device determines whether it isinstructed to halt on detecting an unacceptable document, i.e., adocument that is neither valid media nor authentic currency, such as ablank piece of paper. These instructions may be operator-specified orpreprogrammed. In some embodiments, the document processing device isadapted to determine whether an unacceptable document is an invalidmedium or a non-genuine currency bill, and can receive separateinstructions on handling each. If the device is instructed to halt ondetecting an unacceptable document, the operation of the device ishalted or suspended at step 1216 to permit inspection and/or removal ofthe unacceptable document. At step 1218, operation of the device isrestarted once the unacceptable document has been inspected and/orremoved from the document processing device, and operation continues ateither steps 1200 or 1222 depending on pre-programmed oroperator-specified instructions. In some embodiments, the operator may,upon inspection, determine a bill's denomination. In such embodiments,the operator may manually enter the denomination of a currency bill,such a via a denomination key, deposit the bill into an outputreceptacle, and resume operation. In another embodiment, the operatormay, upon inspection, determine information about the unacceptablesubstitute currency medium, such as the information described above.

Returning to step 1214, if the document processing device is instructedto offsort unacceptable documents, the unacceptable document istransported to the offsort receptacle at step 1220. The particularoffsort receptacle which is to receive unacceptable documents may beoperator-specified or preprogrammed. In embodiments in which the deviceis adapted to discriminate between invalid media and non-genuinecurrency bills, the unacceptable document may be routed to one of twooffsort receptacles depending on what kind of unacceptable document wasdetected. This routing decision may be made under the control ofoperator-specified or preprogrammed instructions.

If there are no further documents to be processed at step 1222, thedevice may optionally display information associated with the processeddocuments at step 1224. This information may include any combination ofthe following according to one or more different embodiments: the totalamount of authentic currency bills processed (e.g., $15,567); abreakdown of the denominations of currency bills processed (e.g., 140 $1bills, 147 $5 bills, 268 $10 bills, and so on); the total number ofvalid media detected (e.g., 156 pieces of valid media processed);barcode information detected from barcoded media (e.g., barcode number12345678); the total number of flagged currency bills processed (e.g., 5flagged bills, where 3 bills are no call bills, 1 bill is a suspectbill, and 1 bill is both suspect and no call); the total number ofinvalid media detected (e.g., 16 pieces of invalid media processed); thetotal amount of media detected (e.g., $10,000 in media processed); thetotal number of unidentified documents—i.e., documents which wereneither determined to be a currency bill nor a valid substitute currencymedium, such as a blank piece of paper for example—detected (e.g., 27pieces of unidentified documents processed); why a particular currencybill was not authenticated (e.g., 4 bills failed magnetic strip test, 2bills failed ultraviolet test); the total number of documents processed(e.g., 11,253 documents processed); the number of batch identificationcards processed (e.g., 4 batch identification cards processed);identification information of the gaming machine from which a batch ofcurrency bills and substitute currency media originated based oninformation encoded on a batch identification card (e.g., batchidentification card number 12345 which identifies gaming machine number42); and other suitable information.

At step 1226, the device may optionally generate a report based on someor all of the information displayed at step 1224. This report may beformatted and displayed to the operator, and/or it may be printed,and/or it may be transmitted to a network computer for storage orfurther manipulation.

Note that in the embodiments described in connection with FIG. 12, thedevice may further include a coin sorting device in which coins are alsoprocessed. The information associated with the processed coins may becombined with the information associated with the processed documents. Asingle or separate reports may be generated based on the processed coinsand processed documents.

Turning now to FIG. 13, there is shown a flowchart further describingthe operation of a document processing device according to anyembodiment described in connection with FIG. 12. At step 1300, documentsare deposited into an input receptacle of a document processing device.The documents may include a combination of mixed currency bills andsubstitute currency media, or they may include currency bills only orsubstitute currency media only. At steps 1302 and 1304, the devicedetermines whether a first document is a valid barcoded ticket orwhether a first document is an authentic currency bill. Note that steps1302 and 1304 can be performed in any order. If a document is determinedto be a valid barcoded ticket, the barcode number associated with thebarcoded ticket is stored in a memory location at step 1306. At step1308, if a document is determined to be an authentic currency bill, thevalue of the currency bill is added to the value of all authenticcurrency bills scanned since step 1300. This value may be initialized tozero or may be initialized to some other number, such as a numberrepresenting the total amount of another batch of currency bills whichwas processed by the document processing device. If the first documentis determined to be neither a valid barcoded ticket nor an authenticcurrency bill, it may be processed at step 1310 in accordance with steps1214, 1216, 1218, and 1220 described in connection with FIG. 12hereinabove.

At step 1312, the device determines whether any more documents remain tobe processed. If there are, operation continues at step 1302 until thereare no further documents to be processed. If no further documents are tobe processed, the device retrieves the values associated with the storedbarcode numbers from a computer network at step 1314. Alternatively,after each instance in which the device detects a barcode number, thedevice may retrieve the value associated with the barcode number fromthe computer network. The computer network may be a casino gamingmachine network or a retailer network, for example. In a casino gamingenvironment, the barcode numbers may be associated with barcoded cashouttickets. In the retailer environment, the barcode numbers may beassociated with store coupons, gift certificates, or other barcodedpromotional media. In the casino gaming environment, one or moredatabases may be linked to provide information about the player whoredeemed the ticket, when the ticket was dispensed, when the ticket wasredeemed, and so forth, based on the barcode number from a cashoutticket. In the retailer environment, one or more databases may be linkedto provide information about the product associated with the promotion,manufacturer data, and customer information based on data associatedwith customer loyalty cards, for example. This information and the otherinformation described in connection with FIG. 12 may be included in areport generated by the device at step 1316. All or a portion of thisgenerated report may be displayed and/or printed and/or stored ortransmitted for later retrieval or further manipulation.

Additional details concerning the operation of a document processingdevice according to the present invention may be found in connectionwith the description of FIGS. 1 a-11 above.

FIG. 13 a illustrates a method of processing documents includingcurrency bills and substitute currency media bearing more than onebarcoded pattern in a document processing device according to anyembodiment described in connection with FIG. 12. A plurality ofdocuments are deposited into an input receptacle of a documentprocessing device at step 1320. The document processing devicedetermines whether the documents under consideration is an authenticcurrency bill at step 1322. If the document is an authentic currencybill, the bill's denomination is determined and, at step 1326, the valueof the bill is added to a running total of the value of currency billsprocessed. If the document is determined not to be an authentic currencybill, the document processing device checks whether the document is avalid substitute currency medium at step 1324. Note that the sequence ofsteps shown in FIG. 13 a are not necessarily presented in the order inwhich they are performed. For example, step 1324 could be performedbefore or concurrently with step 1322.

In the specific case where the substitute currency media are barcodedtickets, a valid substitute currency medium is detected when a mediadetector successfully decodes the barcoded patterns imprinted on thebarcoded ticket into sets of meaningful characters. In a specificembodiment, one set of meaningful characters is a ticket number, andanother set of meaningful characters is a value or amount of currency.Thus, a value of $12BB, for example, would not be a meaningful set ofcharacters and the document would be flagged as an invalid substitutecurrency medium and processed as such at step 1334. Similarly, theticket numbers may have to conform to a set of predetermined rules, suchas being a six-digit number followed by an alphabet letter. Thus, aticket number of 1234567 would not be a meaningful set of characters,and a document bearing that ticket number would be flagged and processedas an invalid substitute currency medium.

At step 1334, operation of the document processing device may be haltedor suspended, or the invalid substitute currency medium may be directedto a reject output pocket, for example. If a valid substitute currencymedium is detected, the first barcoded pattern is decoded into a ticketnumber at step 1328. The second barcoded pattern is decoded into a valueat step 1330, and the ticket number and the value are stored to a fileat step 1332.

At step 1336, the document processing device determines whether thereare any more documents to be processed. If so, processing continues atstep 1322. If there are no further documents to be processed, thedocument processing device transmits the ticket numbers and valuesgenerated at either or both of steps 1326 and 1332 to an accountingsystem for reconciliation at step 1338. Alternately, the documentprocessing device can copy the file to a storage medium such as a floppydisk. The machine operator may then present the floppy disk to theaccounting system for reconciliation. At step 1340, an optional reportmay be generated containing a summary of the processed documents.

Control Unit

Referring back to FIG. 1 a, there is shown a control unit 116 which maybe employed in any embodiment shown or described herein. As previouslyexplained, the control unit 116 may comprise a desktop computercomprising a monitor and keyboard; a touch screen; or a panel includinga display and keys, switches, or buttons. In addition, the control unit116 may comprise a touch/video display, which is described below.

FIG. 14 illustrates a functional block diagram of a touch/video display1400 according to one embodiment of the present invention. Thetouch/video display 1400 is a display that comprises a touch portion1402 and a video portion 1404. The touch portion 1402 of the display1400 operates as a touch screen, accepting input from the operatorthrough actuation of specific areas 1406, 1408 on the touch portion1402. The touch portion 1402 may also display information to theoperator. The video portion 1404 of the display operates as a videodisplay. For example, an operator of a document processing device inaccordance with any embodiment shown or described herein may needassistance in operating the device. In a training mode, for example, thetouch/video display 1400 would receive input from the operatorindicating a desired area of training (such as clearing document jams,for example) via the touch portion 1402 of the touch/video display 1400,and would display a video presentation, for example, of the desired areaof training on the video portion 1404. The video presentation coulddirect the operator to perform various tasks as part of the trainingmode, pausing to permit the operator to complete a task, and thenresuming when the operator so indicates by touching a specific area onthe touch portion 1402 of the touch/video display 1400, such as specificarea 1406. In alternate embodiments, the touch/video display 1400 may beemployed to provide interactive help or instructional presentationsregarding various operations of the document processing device, or tocommunicate messages such as advertisements or other information to anoperator.

As described above, an operator may select via the control unit 116 anyone of a multitude of preprogrammed or user-defined modes, such as thosedisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,795, entitled “Multi-Pocket CurrencyDiscriminator,” in U.S. Pat. No. 6,460,705, entitled “Method of CreatingIdentifiable Smaller Stacks of Currency Bills Within a Larger Stack ofCurrency Bills,” and in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/688,538, entitled “Currency Handling System Having Multiple OutputReceptacles,” which was filed on Oct. 16, 2000, previously incorporatedby reference. The operator may select these and other modes via aninterface such as the control unit 116 shown in FIG. 1 a and describedabove.

System of Networked Document Processing Devices

FIG. 15 is a diagram of a system 1500 for processing currency bills andsubstitute currency media which generally includes gaming machines 1502,1504, 1506, document processing devices 1508, 1510, and a network 1512.While FIG. 15 describes embodiments in a casino environment, otherenvironments such as a retailer or an amusement park, for example, arecontemplated. In a retailer environment, the gaming machines 1502, 1504,1506 are replaced with document accepting devices, such as self-checkoutstations. In an amusement park environment, the gaming machines 1502,1504, 1506 may be replaced with vending machines or other documentaccepting devices suitable for use in amusement park environments. Inshort, the gaming machines 1502, 1504, 1506 may be any documentaccepting device suitable for use in a particular environment. Adocument accepting device includes a document acceptor for accepting adocument, such as a currency bill or a substitute currency medium.

A casino environment includes a first gaming machine 1502, a secondgaming machine 1504, and an nth gaming machine 1506 arranged about acasino floor. Casino patrons play games of chance on the gaming machines1502, 1504, 1506 during which currency bills and substitute currencymedia are received and dispensed. At certain predetermined times, suchas daily, hourly, every six hours, and so forth, or upon the occurrenceof certain events, such as a full condition reported by a bill validatorbox, a casino operator empties the bill validator boxes which containstacks of documents 1518, 1520, 1522 from the gaming machines 1502,1504, 1506, respectively. The stacks of documents 1518, 1520, 1522 arebrought into a soft-count room in a secure area of the casino forprocessing. One or more of the stacks of documents retrieved from thegaming machines are deposited into an input receptacle of a documentprocessing device within the soft-count room. In FIG. 15, the stacks ofdocuments 1518, 1520 retrieved from the first gaming machine 1502 andthe second gaming machine 1504 are deposited into the input receptacleof a first document processing device 1508. The stack of documents 1522retrieved from the nth gaming machine 1506 is deposited into the inputreceptacle of a mth document processing device 1510.

The document processing devices 1508, 1510 may be any documentprocessing device shown and described above such as those described inconnection with FIGS. 1 a-11. They are communicatively linked via a host1536 to the network 1512 such as described in connection with FIG. 11.The first document processing device 1508 processes the stack ofdocuments deposited in its input receptacle and identifies authenticcurrency bills and their denominations, no call bills, suspect bills,valid substitute currency media, or invalid substitute currency media.Depending on the number of output receptacles present in the documentprocessing device 1508, authentic, no call, and suspect bills and validand invalid substitute currency media will be directed to one or more ofthe output receptacles of the machine 1508. Likewise, the mth documentprocessing device 1510 processes authentic currency bills whosedenominations can be determined, valid substitute currency media, nocall and suspect bills, and invalid substitute currency media.

In some embodiments where the substitute currency media include abarcoded pattern encoding a ticket number, the ticket numbers of thevalid substitute currency media processed in the document processingdevices 1508, 1510 are stored in a file in a storage medium such as thestorage medium 119 shown in FIG. 1 c. The file containing the ticketnumbers is presented to a ticket tracking system 1516 which, accordingto one embodiment, is coupled to the network 1512. In other embodiments,the ticket numbers are stored in a floppy disk which is presented to theticket tracking system 1516. The ticket tracking system 1516 comparesthe ticket numbers in the file with the ticket numbers stored in aticket database 1538 and retrieves the values associated with eachticket number from the ticket database 1538. The ticket numbers andvalues are presented to an accounting system 1514 for reconciliation.

The gaming machines 1502, 1504, 1506 are communicatively coupled to thenetwork 1512. In one embodiment, the information encoded on the batchidentification cards placed in the gaming machines is maintained in theaccounting system 1514, which information includes the identity of thegaming machine in which the batch identification card is placed. Thebatch identification cards may be generated by a portable device carriedby casino operators who empty the bill validator boxes from the gamingmachines When a bill validator box is emptied, the portable devicedispenses a batch identification card bearing a barcoded patternrepresentative of the name or number of the gaming machine into whichthe card is placed. After the bill validator box fills up with currencybills and substitute currency media, the batch identification card, thecurrency bills, and the substitute currency media are placed into adocument processing device for processing. The barcode on the batchidentification card is decoded and stored in a file along withinformation about the currency bills and substitute currency mediaprocessed by the document processing device.

FIG. 16 is a diagram of a system 1600 for processing currency bills andsubstitute currency media which generally includes a gaming machine 1602coupled to a network 1604. The network 1604 is coupled to an accountingsystem 1606 and a ticket-tracking system 1608. The casino operatoroptionally places a batch identification card at the bottom of the billvalidator box in the gaming machine 1602. The batch identification cardincludes a barcoded pattern that encodes the identity of the gamingmachine and/or is otherwise associated with the gaming machine such asby the accounting system associating the barcoded information on thecard with the particular gaming machine. During operation, casinopatrons will insert currency bills and substitute currency media intothe bill acceptor slot of the gaming machine 1602. At predeterminedintervals (hourly, daily, etc.) or upon the occurrence of a certaincondition (e.g., the bill validator box is full), the casino operatorwill remove the bill validator box and bring it into the casino'ssoft-count room. The bill validator box contains a stack of documents1616 that includes a batch identification card 1610, a plurality ofcurrency bills 1612, and a plurality of barcoded tickets 1614.

The casino operator removes the stack of documents 1616 and places theminto the input receptacle of a document processing device 1650. Thedocument processing device 1650 may be any document processing deviceshown and described in connection with FIG. 1 a, 1 b, or 1 c. In theillustrated embodiment, the documents are transported, one at a time,past one or more currency detectors 1618 and one or more barcode readers1620, though not necessarily in that order. The currency detector 1618is adapted to detect characteristic information associated with theauthenticity and denomination of currency bills, and communicatesinformation indicative of the denomination of an authentic currency billto a controller in the document processing device. The denominationinformation is stored as processed document data 1630.

If the document under consideration includes one or more barcodedpatterns, the barcoded patterns on the ticket are scanned by the barcodereader(s) 1620 and decoded into characters. For example, the barcodedpattern on a batch identification card would be decoded into a batchidentification number 1622, which is a number associated with the gamingmachine 1602. A first barcoded pattern of a multi-barcoded ticket wouldbe decoded into a ticket number 1624. A second barcoded pattern would bedecoded into a value 1626 representing the currency amount for which thebarcoded ticket was redeemed. The values of the authentic currency billsprocessed, the batch identification number 1622, the ticket numbers1624, and the values 1626 form the processed document data 1630. Theprocessed document data 1630 is stored in a file on a floppy disk, ahard drive, a network drive, or any other suitable storage medium.

After the documents are processed, they are directed to one or moreoutput receptacles at step 1628. The processed document data 1630 isprovided to the network 1604. In an alternate embodiment, the processeddocument data 1630 may be provided to the accounting system 1606 or theticket tracking system 1608. When the processed document data 1630includes ticket numbers and values, the processed document data 1630 canbe provided either via the network 1604 or directly to the accountingsystem 1606 for reconciliation.

The gaming machine 1602 is also coupled to the network 1604. The gamingmachine 1602 produces preprocessed document data 1632 during operation.The preprocessed document data 1632 includes information about thecurrency bills inserted into the bill validator or acceptor in thegaming machine 1602 and information about the barcoded tickets redeemedat the gaming machine 1602. The preprocessed document data 1632 isprovided via the network 1604 to the accounting system 1606 or theticket tracking system 1608. After the processed document data 1630 isreceived in the accounting system 1606, the two sets of data arecompared for discrepancies.

The ticket tracking system 1608 keeps track of the tickets dispensed andthe tickets redeemed, and prevents redemption of the same ticket numbermore than once. For example, when a casino patron redeems a barcodedticket at the gaming machine 1602, the ticket number may be flagged bythe ticket tracking system 1608 as redeemed. Thus, for example, if thecasino patron attempted to redeem a photocopy of the barcoded ticket hejust redeemed, the ticket tracking system 1608 would inform the gamingmachine 1602 not to award any credits or dispense any currency bills forthat ticket.

In some embodiments, the bill validator in the gaming machine 1602 isadapted to detect only the ticket number from a barcoded ticket, even ifthe value is also encoded on the ticket. In such embodiments, when thebarcoded ticket is redeemed in the bill validator of the gaming machine1602, the gaming machine 1602 transmits the ticket number to the tickettracking system 1608. The ticket tracking system 1608 looks up theticket number in a database 1634, and the database 1634 returns thevalue associated with that ticket number. The ticket tracking system1608 then credits the gaming machine 1602 with the value retrieved fromthe ticket database unless the ticket database 1608 indicates that theticket has already been redeemed.

In other embodiments, the casino patron redeems a ticket at a redemptionmachine (not shown) by inserting the ticket into the device whichvalidates the ticket and dispenses currency bills and/or coinscommensurate with the value of the ticket. In such embodiments, theredemption machine is coupled to the ticket tracking system which keepstrack of the tickets in the same manner as described above.

As explained in connection with FIG. 15, the system described in FIG. 16is not limited to the casino environment, but other environments such asa retailer and amusement park environments, for example, arecontemplated. In addition, in some embodiments, the ticket trackingsystem 1516 of FIG. 15 may be incorporated into or a part of theaccounting system 1514, or vice versa. In other embodiments, the tickettracking system 1608 of FIG. 16 may be incorporated into or a part ofthe accounting system 1606, or vice versa.

As indicated above, there are occasions where a bank or a casino have alarge number of small batches. In other words, each batch, or sub-batch,might consist of as few as 0 notes (e.g., some casinos will processempty batches for completeness purposes) to maybe 100, 200, 300, or morenotes. But the capacity of a typical input receptacle, also referred toas a hopper or feeder area, is much larger. FIGS. 17-22 illustratesmethods that focus on running a sequence of batches in a near continuousmanner, i.e., multiple-batch processing. The continuous flow of multiplesmall batches enables the operator to perform other tasks or functionswhile the machine is mirrofying these various batches. And although ahopper might be able to hold 3, 4, 10 or even 20 batches, it isgenerally desirable to be able to identify each batch within the hopperwith a source from which the batch came, or with other informationassociated with the batch. With reference to FIG. 17, at step 1702 asource identification information (Source ID) is associated with abatch. The Source ID can be disposed on a barcode card (also referred toas a source identification card) placed in, for example, a gamingmachine after the previous batch from that machine is emptied, orassociated with the batch after the batch is emptied from that gamingmachine. The Source ID represents a set of characters that indicate thedevice with which the batch is associated, e.g., the gaming machine fromwhich the batch was retrieved. For example, ten slot machines at acasino are emptied, each slot machine has a barcoded header card, to,for example, designate slot 1 for the first batch of documents, slot 2for the second batch of documents, and so on. At step 1704 the batchesof documents are delivered, individually or collectively, to aprocessing location. At step 1706, the Source ID for batch 1 is enteredin memory of the processing machine The memory can be external to theprocessing machine, such as in a PC, or internal to the processingmachine. The Source ID can be entered by barcode scanning with, forexample, a barcode gun, or it can be keyed in via a keyboard,OCR-scanned, MICR-scanned, or detected via infrared, for example. Atstep 1708, the Source ID for the i^(th) batch is entered in memory. Theidentification information for each batch is entered until at step 1710,the Source ID for batch n is entered in memory. At step 1712, batch 1 isloaded into the processing device with a separator card. The separatorcard may be the barcode card comprising the Source ID, or a blank card,or some other appropriate separation structure. Alternatively, theseparator may be part of the processing device.

In one embodiment, the Source ID, which is captured from the sourceidentification card, can be compared to a database (or any informationlibrary). The comparison can be used, for example, to validate theSource ID. The database can reside on the processing device or can beremotely accessible.

At step 1714, batch i is loaded into the processing device with acorresponding separator card. At step 1716, batch n is loaded into theprocessing device with a separator card. Batches 1 through n may beloaded at one time, if the input receptacle has enough capacity, or ingroups of batches. At step 1718 multiple-batch processing is begun. Ifall of the batches could not be loaded, the remaining batches can beloaded as device capacity permits.

Continuing with the above example concerning ten gaming machines, assumeten batches can be loaded into the feeding area, or hopper, of theprocessing device. A barcode gun can be used to capture the Source IDfrom the header card for the first batch of currency at any time duringdocument processing, including prior to feeding or loading the batches,as the batches are being fed into the machine, after some of the batcheshave been processed, or after all of the batches have been processed.The barcode gun can be used to capture the Source ID from the headercard for the second batch, and then the second batch is placed in thefeeding area. The header card for the third batch can be barcode gunned(scanned), and the third batch placed in the input receptacle. Thisprocess continues until all ten batches are placed in the feeding area.The start key of the processing device is pressed and the processingdevice begins to run to process the currency.

At step 1720, documents are transported, in seriatim, through theprocessing device. The device determines, at step 1722, whether or not adocument is a separator card. If the document is a separator card, whichin some embodiments is a barcode card, the card does not have to be readby the processing device as the card passes through the processingdevice. The card does not have to be read because the data on the cardhas already been captured by, for example, barcode gunning (scanning)the header card before loading the corresponding batch.

At step 1724, after determining the document is a separator card, thecard is sent to a reject receptacle, such as the upper output receptacle208 a of FIG. 2. At step 1726, if the separator card is being used as aheader card (positioned in front of the batch) the controller associatesinformation based on processing subsequent documents, until the nextseparator card is detected, with a corresponding Source ID alreadystored in memory. Alternatively, if the separator card is used as atrailer card, information based on processing documents between theprevious separator card, e.g., the card for batch i−1, and the presentseparator card, e.g., the card for batch i, is associated with theSource ID for batch i. Since the batches of documents are processed in asequence consistent with the sequence in which source identificationinformation was entered, the entries in memory of source identificationinformation can be stepped through to match up information based onprocessing a batch of documents.

At step 1728, where the document is not a separator card, the documentis processed for characteristic information to, for example, determine adenomination. At step 1730, the memory is updated with information basedon processing the document. And at step 1732, the loop is continueduntil there is not another document, and then multiple-batch processingends, at step 1734.

FIG. 18 illustrates a variation of the method illustrated in FIG. 17. Atstep 1810, the barcode card for batch 1 is scanned to enter the SourceID corresponding to batch 1 into memory. At step 1812, batch 1 is loadedin the processing device, along with the barcode card associated withbatch 1. This scanning and loading continues for each batch; at step1814, the barcode card for batch i is scanned. At step 1816, batch i isloaded in the processing device along with the barcode card for batch i.This process continues until, at step 1818, the barcode for batch n isscanned to enter the information for batch n into memory. At step 1820,batch n is loaded in the processing device along with the barcode cardfor batch n.

At step 1830, multiple-batch processing is begun. And as discussed inrelation to FIG. 17, the barcode card may be scanned prior, during, ofafter processing of the documents. At step 1832, documents aretransported, one at a time, through the processing device. At step 1834,the processing device determines if the document is a barcode card. Ifthe document is a barcode card the device sends the card, at step 1836,to reject. If the document is not a barcode card, the processing device,at step 1838, determines if the document is a reject, e.g., anunreadable document. If the document is a reject then, at step 1840, theprocessing device sends the document to reject.

If the document is not a reject, then at step 1842, the processingmachine processes the document to obtain characteristic information. Atstep 1844, memory is updated based on the information obtained fromprocessing the document at step 1842. For example, the count ofdocuments processed for the batch, or the current multiple-batch run, isincremented. Similarly, the total value for the batch may be adjustedbased on the document.

If, at step 1846, there is another document to process, then theprocessing device determines, at step 1834, if the document is a barcodecard. If there is not another document, then at step 1848, theprocessing device queries the operator as to whether or not there areany rejects, e.g., non-machine-readable documents to key in manually. Ifthere are rejects to key in, then at step 1850, the operator canmanually key in the rejects associated with the then current batch. Ifthere are no rejects to key in, then at step 1852 the documentinformation in memory for the batch is matched with the batch barcodeinformation for that batch on a sequential basis due to the batchesbeing processed in a sequence consistent with that in which the barcodeinformation was entered.

At step 1854, the processing device determines if there are any moreactive batches. If there are more active batches then the device, atstep 1848, cues the operator as to whether or not there are any rejectsto key in. The rejects for the batches are keyed into the processingdevice in a sequence consistent with the sequence in which the batcheswere processed. If there are no more active batches, then at step 1856,multiple-batch processing is ended.

Rather than feeding the stacks of documents directly into the inputreceptacle of the machine, a stack of currency can be removed from aslot machine and placed into a cartridge or cassette with a retractablefront gate and a unique number. The header card from the slot machine iselectronically scanned or inputted manually and placed either in thefront or in back of the stack of currency. The cartridge includes apressure assembly to keep forward pressure on the documents as they arefed into the feeding mechanism of a document processing machine. Thisprocess is repeated for other slot machines until the cartridge is full.The cartridge is placed into the feeding mechanism and its unique numberis entered manually or automatically into the machine During processing,when a header card is present, the machine does not interpret theinformation encoded on the card. The header cards of each batch are sentto a reject pocket along with any rejected currency identified in therespective batch. The cartridge loading station terminal could benetworked to the customer's host computer system whereby the transactionnumbers could be downloaded to cross-check the validity of the enterednumber and provide the currency processing employees with a list ofmissing or duplicate entries.

FIG. 19 illustrates an alternate method of multiple-batch processing. Atstep 1910, the barcode card for the batch 1 is gun scanned. The barcodecard for batch 1 is replaced, at step 1912, with a separator card. Atstep 1914, batch 1 is loaded into the processing device along with theseparator card. This routine is repeated for each subsequent batch. Forexample, at step 1916 batch is loaded into the processing device alongwith a separator card. After all the batches are loaded into theprocessing device, into the feed hopper, for example, then at step 1918multiple-batch processing is started. If the total quantity of documentsof the batches exceeds the capacity of the feed hopper, the batches canbe processed in groups, where each group includes multiple batches.

Each document is then transported one at a time through the documentprocessing device. If, at step 1920, a document is determined to be aseparator card, then the device, at step 1922, sends the card to reject.In methods in which the separator card is used as a header card, theprocessing device then, at step 1924, sets a flag indicating a separatorcard has been reached so that information from processing documentsbetween this separator card and the next separator card will beassociated with bar code information corresponding to this separatorcard. The barcode information in memory is associated with theinformation from document processing on a sequential basis. For example,the barcode information entered from the i^(th) barcode will beassociated with the information obtained for processing documents of thei^(th) batch of documents. The barcode information entries in memorycan, for example, be stepped through on a first-entered-first-batchbasis or a last-entered-first-batch basis. In methods in which theseparator card is used as a header card, the documents following thei^(th) header card belong to the i^(th) batch of documents. In methodsin which the separator card is used as a trailer card, then theinformation from processing documents between the previous separatorcard and the current separator card are associated with the currentseparator card. Then the current separator card, the i^(th) separatorcard, is associated with the i^(th) barcode information in memory, on asequential basis.

If at step 1920 the document is not a separator card, then at step 1930,if the document is a reject, e.g., not readable or not genuine, then thedocument is, at step 1932 sent to reject. If the document is not areject, then, at step 1940, the document is processed to, for example,determine its denomination. Memory is updated at step 1942. For example,the number of documents processed and the total denomination for aparticular batch may be determined and stored in memory. Thatinformation is matched to, for example, the proper source ID in memoryby stepping through source IDs in memory, by, for example, taking onestep for each batch processed.

If, at step 1950, there is another document to be processed, then theprocess continues again, at step 1920. Multiple-batch processing ends atstep 1960, if there is not another document to process.

FIG. 20 illustrates a method of processing documents similar to that ofFIG. 19, except that the barcode card is not replaced with a separatorcard. At step 2010 the barcode card for batch 1 is gun scanned. At step2012, batch 1 is loaded into the device without the barcode card. In avariation, batch 1 is loaded into the device, without a barcode card,before the information from the barcode card is gun scanned.

At step 2014, the barcode card for batch 2 is scanned. Batch 2 is then,at step 2016, loaded into the device without corresponding barcode suchthat a paddle separates batch 1 and batch 2. This general routinecontinues until at step 2018, multiple-batch processing is begun.

With reference to the i^(th) batch, at step 2020, the documentprocessing device transports documents from batch i, one at a time,through the device. Each document of batch i is, at step 2022, processedto assess document characteristics. And then, at step 2024, theprocessing device automatically advances the paddle separating batch ifrom batch i+1. At step 2026, a separator is sent from a printer toreject to separate rejects of batch i from rejects of batch i+1. Then atstep 2028 documents from batch i+1 are transported, one at a time,through the processing device. And at step 2030, batch i+1 documents areprocessed.

The separator is not required to be ejected from the printer to thereject receptacle, e.g., output receptacle 208 c or 208 a, prior tobeginning to transport documents from batch i+1 through the device. Thecontroller controls sequencing such that documents from i+1 that arerejected do not enter the reject until after the separator ejected fromthe printer enters the reject. This general process continues until, atstep 2032, multiple-batch processing is complete.

As an alternative to the paddle method, another embodiment uses asequence of input receptacles, each of which contains one batch to besorted. The batches include header cards with either barcodes to bescanned or data to be entered manually using a keyboard. The receptaclesare configured in-line, or in a “lazy susan” configuration. Thereceptacles approach the feeder sequentially, and when the firstreceptacle is empty, the second receptacle move to the feeder. Thisprocess continues until all input receptacles are empty. Todifferentiate the source of the bills in the reject receptacle, in anembodiment, a printer is coupled to the device and prints a card that isplaced in the reject receptacle at the start of each batch processed.The information printed on the card informs the user as to which billsin the reject receptacle correspond to which batch sorted.

FIG. 21 illustrates yet another method of multiple-batch processing. Atstep 2110, batch 1 is loaded with a header card in the processingdevice. And each batch is loaded with its header card in succession intothe processing device with its header card. For example, at step 2112batch i is loaded with its header card in the processing device. Andthen at step 2114 multiple-batch processing is begun.

If, at step 2116, a document is determined to be a header card, then atstep 2118, the card is sent to reject. At step 2120 a flag is set orpointer is moved in memory to indicate a separation between batches hasbeen reached. If at step 2116 the document card is not a header card,then at step 2130, the document is processed to assess characteristicinformation. At step 2140 the memory is updated to reflect informationfrom processing that document.

If at step 2150 there is another document to process, then processingcontinues again at step 2116. After all the documents have beenprocessed, then at step 2160 information from each of the header cards,which have been collected in reject, e.g. output receptacle 208 a or 205c, are entered into memory on a sequential basis. Then, at step 2170document information in memory for each batch is matched with headerinformation that has been entered for each batch on a sequential basis.To simplify the matching process, the information from the header cards,e.g. source ID, should be entered into memory in an order consistentwith the order in which the batches were processed. As an alternative tomatching document information in memory after all of the header cardinformation has been entered, document information for each batch can bematched with information as the information from each card is enteredfrom a header card that has been collected in reject.

FIG. 22 illustrates a method of multiple-batch processing in whichrejected currency is keyed in for each batch. Similar to what has beendescribed with respect to some methods above, at step 2210 batch 1 isloaded into the processing device with a header card. Loading continuesuntil the feed hopper is full or all the batches have been loaded. Andthen at step 2220 multiple-batch processing is started. If at step 2230there is not another document to process, then at step 2232 theprocessing device prompts the operator to key in rejected currency forbatch n. In step 2234 document information in memory batch n is updated.At step 2236 the processing device queries the operator as to whetherthere is more rejected currency for batch n. If there is more rejectedcurrency for batch n, then the operator returns to step 2232 to key inmore rejected currency.

In one method the operator enters all the rejected currency for a givenbatch, without the processing device prompting the operator each timefor additional rejected currency from that batch. After the rejectedcurrency for the given batch is entered, the operator notifies theprocessing device that all rejected currency for the given batch hasbeen entered.

If there is no additional rejected currency for batch n, then at step2238 the operator enters header card information for batch n from headercard n collected in reject. At step 2240, document information in memoryfor batch n is matched to information from header card n.

This general process of entering rejected currency and header cardinformation continues for each batch. For example at step 2242 rejectedcurrency for batch i is keyed in. At step 2244 document information inmemory corresponding to batch i is updated with the keyed ininformation. At step 2246, header card information for batch i isentered. And then at step 2248 document information for batch i ismatched to header card information from header card i. This processcontinues until the header card information for batch 1 is entered, atstep 2250. At step 2260, document information for batch 1 is thenmatched with information obtained from header card 1 that was collectedin reject.

FIG. 23 illustrates a document processing device 2300 that is suited formultiple-batch processing. Document processing device 2300 is similar tothe processing device 200 illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 above.Accordingly, previously-described components are not discussed here.Processing device 2300 includes a barcode gun 2302, connected to memory,for entering source identification information from a barcode card intomemory. After scanning the barcode for batch 1, batch 1 is loaded intothe input receptacle 202 at a first location 2304 in the inputreceptacle 202. After scanning the barcode card for batch 2, batch 2 isloaded into the input receptacle 202 at a second position 2306 of theinput receptacle 202 such that a paddle 2308 separates batch 1 frombatch 2.

After the n^(th) batch is placed in the input receptacle 202,multiple-batch processing is started. Transport mechanism 206 guideseach document, one at a time, through the valuation region 204. Paddle2308 automatically advances as documents are transported through theprocessing device 2300. After the last document from batch 1 isprocessed, printer 2310 ejects a separator to reject output receptacle208 a. Where output receptacle 208 c is also used as a rejectreceptacle, printer 2312 can send a separator to escrow portion 205 athrough slot 2314. A controller controls the sequencing of the transportmechanism and printers 2310 and 2312 to provide a separator in reject208 a and escrow portion 205 a in order to separate rejected documentsfrom sequential batches.

In one embodiment, when paddle 2308 gets to the front of inputreceptacle 202, where the documents are being stripped into thetransport mechanism 206, the paddle 2308 remains idle until the entirebatch has been cleared through the machine, or the machine is timed out,for example. The paddle then automatically removes itself from thetransport path by, for example, folding flush with the feed mechanismand allowing the feed mechanism to continue to advance.

Where Source ID information has already been entered into memory via,for example, barcode gun 2302, printers 2310 and 2312 can print thesource identification information on the separator card by, for example,known ink jet, thermal, laser, dot matrix, or stamping methods.

In some embodiments it is desirable to separate two or more categoriesof reject documents into two or more reject receptacles. In a method inwhich a separator card is processed with the documents of the batch, theseparator card can be sent to one reject, such as 208 a, and printer2312 can eject a separator card into another reject, such as 205 a.

In other embodiments, a document processing device, such as shown inFIGS. 1 a and 23, includes a printing or marking device which can printor mark documents with a variety of information, including a date, time,operator, text, and so forth. In other embodiments, the documentprocessing device, such as shown in FIG. 1 a, may not include the mediadetector 112, and includes the printing or marking device describedabove. The printing or marking can be done using known ink jet, thermal,laser, dot matrix, or stamping methods. Referring to FIG. 1 a, forexample, the printing or marking can be done at any time along thetransport mechanism 106, and the printing or marking is controlled bythe controller 114. The controller 114 instructs the printing or markingdevice not to mark certain documents, such as currency or a documentthat needs to be reprocessed. Control may be obtained in other ways,such as by placing the printing or marking device at a location where nocurrency or documents to be reprocessed will appear. In an embodiment,the printing or marking device is placed proximate the output receptacle108 to mark all documents routed to that particular output receptacle.

Some casino gaming commissions may begin requiring that casino ticketsbe marked with the word VOID after they are collected in the back room.By incorporating a printing or marking device in the document processingdevice, the word VOID can be printed or marked on a casino ticket thathas been processed.

The printing or marking device may also be used in connection with anyof the methods described in connection with FIGS. 17-22 b. A printing ormarking device is disposed near an input receptacle or along a transportmechanism path. A blank card is inserted into the input receptacle andis printed or marked in-line before being sent to an output receptacle.Rejected documents can be routed to the same output receptacle such thatall of them appear behind the blank card which has been printed ormarked. Account numbers or other information is imported into thedocument processing device via a network, for example, or is enteredinto the document processing device manually via a keyboard or keypad,for example, and the account number or other information is printed ormarked on the blank card.

Any of the embodiments described in connection with FIGS. 17-22 b may beadapted to include two cards, a first card that is a barcode card asdescribed above and a second card that is a separator card. Multiplebatches are deposited into the input receptacle of the documentprocessing device. Each batch includes the first card which includes aSource ID, the separator card, and a stack of currency bills and/orsubstitute currency media. The first card is routed to a first outputreceptacle of the document processing device, such as a first upperoutput receptacle. The separator card is routed to a second outputreceptacle, such as a second upper output receptacle, along with anyrejected currency bills and/or rejected substitute currency media. Inthis manner, rejected documents from separate batches will be separatedby the separator cards in the document processing device.

In an embodiment, the separator cards described immediately above may besequentially numbered, such as, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., using a printing ormarking device, and the sequence number is matched using software with acorresponding Source ID.

Finding a Document in a Stack of Documents

Referring now to FIG. 24, a method of processing documents will bedescribed for finding a document located in a stack of documents.Generally, the documents in the stack of documents are first processedin a document processing device, and then the documents are physicallystored in a storage location or electronically imaged and stored on amedia such as a DVD-ROM, a hard drive, for example. The processing ofthe documents may be performed according to any method as describedabove in connection with FIGS. 1 a-23, and the document processingdevice may be any document processing device as described above inconnection with FIGS. 1 a-23. However, sometimes it is necessary toretrieve a specific document for verification purposes. For example, ifan amount redeemed for a casino ticket is larger than the expectedamount for that particular ticket, then the physical ticket may need tobe visually inspected. Clearly, the process of finding the desiredticket can be extremely time-consuming particularly if the ticket isstored among thousands or hundreds of thousands of tickets.

At step 2700, a stack of documents is deposited into an input receptacleof a document processing device. The stack of documents may include acombination of currency bills and substitute currency media, or it mayinclude currency bills only or substitute currency media only. Sourcesof the stack of documents include a storage facility, a gaming machine,or a coupon machine, for example.

At step 2710, an operator inputs document information for verifying aspecific document. The document information includes adocument-identifier that is characteristic of the specific documentwhich is sought. For example, a document-identifier can be a barcode, aserial number, a color or black-and-white pattern, a magnetic strip, orany other identifying characteristic that could distinguish one documentfrom another document. In other embodiments, the document-identifier canbe a combination of characteristics, such as, for example, a barcode anda color pattern. In a specific embodiment, the document-identifier is aticket number. The operator inputs one or more document-identifiers byusing an input device such as a control unit, which in alternateembodiments can be a control unit as described above in connection withFIGS. 1 a-23, e.g., a touch screen, and/or a keyboard.

At step 2720, the document processing device searches the depositedstack of documents for the document bearing the document informationwhich was inputted at step 2710. The documents are transported, onedocument at a time, past a detector, from the input receptacle to one ormore of a plurality of output receptacles. The documents are transportedvia a transport mechanism along a transport path, and the transportmechanism can be any transport mechanism, such as any of the transportmechanisms described above in connection with FIGS. 1 a-23. Thedocuments may be transported along the transport path at a rate in therange of at least about 500 documents per minute to at least about 1,600documents per minute. The detector scans the document-identifier of eachdocument to determine whether a scanned document-identifier matches thespecific document-identifier, which was inputted by the operator at step2710. The instructions for determining whether a document-identifiermatches the specific-document identifier can be stored in the memory,such as, for example, in the form of a computer program.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the control unit includes avisual indicator for indicating when a specific document has been found.For example, the visual indicator can be a plurality of lights, such aslight-emitting diodes or display elements on a video display, whichchange from one color to a different color when a corresponding specificdocument has been found, e.g., the light changes from gray to green. Thevisual indicator may include a light or a display element on a videodisplay that changes colors for each of the inputteddocument-identifiers. In an alternate embodiment, there is a singlelight or display element for all of the inputted document-identifiers.In still another embodiment, the light does not change colors, rather,it only turns on or off when a specific document has been found. Itshould be understood that the visual indicator may be any otherindicator that provides the operator with a visual notification that aspecific document has been found.

The present invention contemplates that the operator may input onedocument-identifier at a time or more than one, such as up to ten,document-identifiers at a time. Each time a document corresponding tothe document-identifier under consideration is located, that documentcan be routed to any operator-specified or pre-programmed outputreceptacle.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the control unitincludes an audio indicator for audibly indicating when a specificdocument has been found. For example, the audio indicator can be asingle beep sound, a series of beep sounds, a continuous sound, apre-recorded message (e.g., “Your document has been found”), or anyother sound patterns. Alternatively, the audio indicator may be used inconnection with the visual indicator for providing both a visual and anaudio indication that a specific document has been found.

At step 2730, after making a determination that a document-identifiermatches the specific document-identifier inputted by the operator, thedocument processing device directs the specific document to a designatedoutput receptacle. In one embodiment, the document processing devicestops after the specific document is directed to the output receptacle.The operator may remove the specific document and then instruct thedocument processing device to proceed in making additionalidentifications. Alternatively, the document processing deviceautomatically restarts after the specific document has been removed fromthe output receptacle. As described above in connection with FIGS. 1a-23, the document processing device may, in alternate embodiments, haveone or more output receptacles, e.g., one output receptacle, two outputreceptacles, or eight output receptacles, and, consequently, thedirecting of the found documents will vary according to how many outputreceptacles are included in the document processing device. For example,if the document processing device has a single output receptacle, thedocument processing device can halt after directing a specific documentto the output receptacle and restart after the specific document hasbeen removed. If the document processing device has a plurality ofoutput receptacles, then at least one of the output receptacles isdesignated for receiving a specific document. Thus, the specificdocument or specific documents can be directed to a first outputreceptacle, such as an off-sort receptacle, and all the other documentscan be directed to the other output receptacles. If the limit of anoutput receptacle is reached before all the documents in a stack ofdocuments have been processed, then the document processing device stopsto allow the removal of the document from the full output receptacle,or, in another embodiment, the document processing device directs theremaining documents to be processed to a next output receptacle.

In one embodiment, the limit of an output receptacle is 2,000 documents.If all the output receptacles are full, then the operator should clearat least one document from at least one output receptacle before thedocument processing device can continue processing the documents fromthe stack of documents. Alternatively, the operator can clear outputreceptacles on-the-fly without stopping of the document processingdevice. If a feed error (e.g., no calls, chains, doubles, skew errors,and suspects) or a jam occurs, it should be handled as described abovein connection with FIGS. 1 a-23.

In another embodiment, the document processing device includes storagecassettes as described above in connection with FIGS. 1 a-23. Thestorage cassettes can be used by the operator for transporting thedocuments to be searched to the input receptacle and for storing thedocuments after the documents have been processed. An advantage of thestorage cassettes is that they provide a more convenient means fortransferring documents to and from the document processing device.

The searching stops when all the specific tickets have been found orwhen all of the documents in the input receptacle have been processed.In one embodiment, the searching stops after all the specific ticketshave been found. The operator must remove the unprocessed documents fromthe input receptacle and combine them with the processed documents fromthe output receptacle(s). This embodiment can be used with a documentprocessing device having a single output receptacle. The outputreceptacle receives the processed documents, and when a specific ticketis found, operation stops to permit removal of the ticket forinspection. The ticket can then be returned to the output receptacle,and the processing may continue or the two stacks from the input andoutput receptacles can be combined.

In another embodiment, all the tickets from the stack of documentsreceived in the input receptacle are processed even if all the specifictickets are found before the last ticket from the stack of documents isprocessed. An advantage of this approach is that the operator does nothave to combine the tickets from the input receptacle and the ticketsfrom the output receptacle in order to recreate the original stack ofdocuments.

In still another embodiment, when the last specific ticket is found, theoperation pauses to give the operator an option of continuing to processthe remaining documents or to halt operation and manually recreate theoriginal stack of documents. For example, if the last ticket to besearched is found within the first few documents in the stack ofdocuments, it may be faster to halt operation and manually recreate theoriginal stack of documents, rather than allowing processing to continuethrough all of the remaining documents in the stack. On the other hand,if the last ticket to be searched is found towards the end of the stackof documents, the operator may wish to continue processing the remainingdocuments rather than manually combining the remaining documents withthe processed documents.

As described above, a visual and/or audio indicator notifies theoperator that a ticket has been found, and the operator can easilyremove the ticket from the designated output receptacle for inspection.In another embodiment, the visual and/or audio indicator may notify theoperator that a duplicate ticket having the same ticket number as apreviously found ticket (e.g., a potentially counterfeit ticket), hasbeen found. Duplicate tickets can be sent to the same output receptacleas the previously found ticket, or they can be sent to a differentoutput receptacle. For example, if the previously found ticket is sentto a first off-sort pocket, then the duplicate tickets can be sent to asecond off-sort pocket.

Referring now to FIG. 25, an example of a ticket verification methodwill be described in more detail. In one embodiment, the documentprocessing device includes eight output receptacles, two of the eightoutput receptacles being off-sort pockets used for receiving eitherrejected tickets or found tickets. An operator selects a “ticket verify”mode from a menu of options and then is prompted to clear any storagecassettes located in the document processing device. The menu of optionsmay be presented to the operator on a video display overlaid by atouchscreen, for example. Other or additional input devices include amouse, a keyboard, or switches. In a specific embodiment, the “TicketVerify” screen displays a number of buttons and options, including anumeric keypad, ten ticket number fields with indicators, a start orcontinue button, a stop button, an end-verify button, and an exitbutton.

At step 2810, a cassette having a stack of casino tickets, which can beretrieved, for example, from a storage facility, is deposited into aninput receptacle of the document processing device. Each of the casinotickets bears an encoded and/or unencoded ticket number foridentification purposes. The operator, at step 2820, uses the numerickeypad or other suitable input device to enter up to ten ticket numbersthat require verification. The entered ticket numbers are stored in thememory of the document processing device.

After all the ticket number have been entered, the operator presses thestart button or otherwise initiates operation of the document processingdevice. At step 2830, a first ticket from the stack of tickets isprocessed by the document processing device. A detector in the documentprocessing device scans the ticket number of the first ticket and, atstep 2840, a determination is made whether there is a match between thescanned ticket number and any one of the entered ticket numbers. If adetermination is made that a match does not exist between any one of theentered ticket numbers and the first ticket number, then, at step 2850,the first ticket is directed to a first output receptacle. If adetermination is made that a match exists between any one of the enteredticket numbers and the first ticket number, then, at step 2860, thefirst ticket is sent to a first off-sort output receptacle and theindicator associated with the found ticket number notifies the operatorthat the specific ticket has been found. At step 2870 a determination ismade whether all the tickets corresponding to the entered ticket numbershave been found. If tickets remain to be found, then the documentprocessing device, at step 2880, processes the next ticket in the inputreceptacle. The next ticket undergoes a similar process as the firstticket, repeating steps 2840 through 2870, and the process ends when allthe specific tickets have been found.

Finding a Stack of Documents in a Plurality of Stacks of Documents

Referring now to FIG. 26, a method of processing documents will bedescribed for finding a particular stack of documents located in aplurality of stacks of documents. This mode of operation will bereferred to as Reference Mode. Places of business such as casinos andretailers deal with large numbers of documents, e.g., currency bills,casino tickets, and store coupons, which are, in general, processed andthen stored as stacks of documents. On any given day, there could bethousands or tens of thousands of documents that are processed by adocument processing device. To verify whether specific document wasprocessed on a particular day, an operator might have to search everystack of documents that was processed on that day. For example, if adocument processing device processes 50,000 documents in one day, andthe documents are stored in stacks of 2,000 each, the operator mighthave to search through each one of the 25 stacks of documents before thespecific document is found. Therefore, although the verification methoddescribed above in connection with FIGS. 24 and 25 can decrease the timeand effort required to find a specific document, a method of processingdocuments that actually identifies the specific stack of documents whichcontains the specific document requiring verification would furtherdecrease the time and effort required for verifying a specific document.

At step 2910, a first stack of documents is processed, one document at atime, by a document processing device. The document processing devicecan be any document processing device, such as any of the documentprocessing devices described in connection with FIGS. 1 a-23, and theprocessing method can be any processing method, such as any of thedocument processing methods described in connection with FIGS. 1 a-23.The first stack of documents is complete when the predetermined numberof documents for the first stack of documents is reached, e.g., 2,000documents.

At step 2920, the document processing device assigns a stack-identifierto the first stack of documents. Like a document-identifier, whichidentifies a particular document, a stack-identifier identifies aparticular stack of documents. More specifically, a stack-identifier maybe anything that identifies a particular stack of documents, e.g., anycombination of one or more numbers, a date, or a barcoded pattern. Thenumber may be a reference number uniquely identifying a stack ofdocuments or it may refer to the number of documents in the cassettecontaining the stack of documents.

In one embodiment, the stack-identifier is printed on a card, such as abatch identification card or header card as described above. In anotherembodiment, the stack-identifier is printed on a receipt afterprocessing a stack of documents, which is placed at the head or at theback of a stack of documents. Alternately, the stack-identifier isprinted on a sticker that may be affixed to the container or bagcontaining the stack of documents.

At step 2930, the document processing device correlates eachdocument-identifier in the first stack of documents with thestack-identifier assigned to the first stack of documents. In oneembodiment, the correlation is carried out by generating a list or tablethat associates each document-identifier with the correspondingstack-identifier. This list is stored in a memory of the documentprocessing device.

At step 2940, a determination is made whether additional stacks ofdocuments require processing. If so, then at step 2950, a next stack ofdocuments is processed as described above in connection with steps2920-2940. If additional stacks of documents do not require processing,then at step 2960, the operator inputs a specific document-identifierfor verifying a specific document, wherein the specific document is thedocument corresponding to the specific document-identifier. Theinputting of the specific document-identifier may be carried out in themanner described above in connection with FIGS. 24 and 25.

At step 2970, the document processing device determines the specificstack-identifier which corresponds to the inputted document-identifier.In one embodiment, the determination is made by software that executesinstructions stored in memory for searching and retrieving the specificstack-identifier from a memory of the document processing device. Thestack-identifier is displayed to the operator on a video display or maybe printed on a receipt so that the operator can bring the receipt tothe storage facility to retrieve the stack of documents corresponding tothe stack-identifier.

At step 2980, a determination is made whether there are additionaldocument-identifiers for which stack-identifiers need to be identified.If there are additional document-identifiers that need to be referenced,steps 2960 through 2980 are repeated. If there are no additionaldocument-identifiers that require verification, then the process ends.Note that the operator may enter several document-identifiers at a timebefore the document processing device searches for the correlatingstack-identifiers.

The document processing device displays to the operator which stack ofdocuments corresponds to each inputted document-identifier. Alternately,the document processing device prints a receipt that shows the inputteddocument-identifier(s) along with the corresponding stack-identifier(s).The operator may bring this receipt to the storage facility to retrievethe proper stack(s) of documents to be searched.

Referring now to FIG. 27, another example of the method for finding aspecific stack of documents described above in connection with FIG. 26will be described. At step 3010, a stack of casino tickets are depositedinto the input receptacle of the document processing device. At step3020, the tickets are processed using any processing method describedabove in connection with FIGS. 1 a-26.

At step 3030, as the document processing device processes the tickets,they are separated into stacks of up to 2,000 tickets. When a storagecassette is full, i.e., contains 2,000 tickets, subsequent tickets areautomatically redirected to another non-full storage cassette. At step3040, a stack-identifier, is assigned to each stack of tickets. Areceipt may be optionally printed that shows the date on which the stackwas created, the number of documents in the cassette, and the referencenumber corresponding to the cassette or stack of tickets. Then, at step3050, a reference table is made that correlates each ticket to itscorresponding stack of tickets, and the reference table is saved in amemory of the document processing device.

At step 3060, an operator uses a touchscreen or other suitable inputdevice to enter a ticket number, which corresponds to a ticket thatrequires verification. For example, the document processing device maypresent to the operator a “Ticket Search” command and a data field forentering the specific ticket number for which the corresponding stackneeds to be located. At step 3070, the document processing devicedetermines which stack of tickets corresponds to the inputted ticketnumber and notifies the operator. At step 3080, the document processingdevice determines whether all the ticket number have been verified. Inthe current example, there was only one ticket number inputted and,therefore, the process is finished. If there are more ticket numbers tobe processed, then the document processing device repeats steps3060-3080. After locating the specific stack corresponding to thespecific ticket number, the operator either manually searches thespecific stack or uses the method described above in connection withFIGS. 24 and 25.

Processing Batches of Documents and Separator Cards

Referring now to FIG. 28, a document processing device 4000 forprocessing batches of documents 4010 uses separator cards 4020 thatidentify each batch of documents 4010 a,b,c,d to a particular source.The device 4000 can be modified in accordance with any one or more ofthe embodiments described above in reference to FIGS. 1 a-27, and theprocessing of the documents may be performed according to any method asdescribed above in reference to FIGS. 1 a-27. As explained in moredetail below, the device 4000 includes an input receptacle 4110 having afeeder assembly 4030, an evaluation unit 4040, a transport mechanism4050, a first offsort receptacle 4060 a, a second offsort receptacle4060 b, and a plurality of output receptacles 4070 a-4070 f. The firstand second offsort receptacles 4060 a,b are particular types of outputreceptacles. In another embodiment of the invention, shown in FIG. 29,the device 4000 includes other components such as a strapping unit 4075,a compartment 4076 which can house a computer, and a plurality ofstorage cassettes 4100 a-4100 f.

Each batch of documents 4010 a,b,c,d includes one or more documents andcorresponds to a respective separator card 4020 a,b,c,d. For ease ofunderstanding, currency bills will sometimes be used herein as anexample of documents included in a batch of documents. However, asdescribed above, the current invention can be used for processing a widevariety of documents, such as currency bills, checks, and casinotickets. Furthermore, each batch of documents can include documents ofmore than one type, e.g., currency bills and checks.

Referring now to FIGS. 30 a and 30 b, a specific embodiment of theseparator card 4020 will be described in more detail. On the back side,shown in FIG. 30 a, the separator card 4020 includes a conductivematerial 4120 and a rectangular bar 4130. The material 4120 is made ofan electrically conductive, non-magnetic material, such asaluminum-based polyester film, adhesive-backed copper foil, andconductive ink, has a generally square shape, and it is located in acentral location. In some embodiments, the conductive material 4120 is afoil. For example, the foil known by the trade designation KoldFoilMetallic, commercially available from Amagic Holographics, Inc., may beused as the material 4120. In this specific embodiment, the foil has athickness of approximately 16 microns (0.00063″) and can range in areaand shape depending on the sensor and user requirements.

In other embodiments, the material 4120 can have any other shape orpattern (e.g., rectangular, circular, trapezoidal, triangular, snowflakepattern, etc.) and can be located anywhere on the separator card 4020and on either or both sides of the separator card 4020. Furthermore, itis not necessary for the material 4120 to be in a single location. Ascan be seen in FIG. 41 a, the separator card 4020 can include aplurality of foils 4120 which can be arranged anywhere on the separatorcard 4020.

On the front side of the specific separator card 4020 shown in FIG. 30a, the separator card 4020 includes a barcode 4140 and a set ofcharacters 4150 as shown in FIG. 30 b. The barcode 4140 is positionedgenerally in a central location of the separator card 4020 and the setof characters 4150 is positioned adjacent to the barcode 4140. As can beseen in FIG. 41 b, in other embodiments, the barcode 4140 can bepositioned in any position on the separator card 4020, and on either orboth sides of the separator card 4020. Those skilled in the art willappreciate that the position and location(s) of the barcode 4140 dependson the position and number of barcode reader(s) in the documentprocessing device 4000. Further, in other embodiments, the set ofcharacters 4150 can be positioned in any position on the separator card4020 relative to the barcode 4140. The barcode 4140 and the set ofcharacters 4150 correspond to identification information that identifiesthe source of the batch of documents, i.e., the source ID, describedabove.

For example, the characters “LC” shown on the separator card 4020 shownin FIG. 30 b can used as an abbreviation for “Label Card,” todistinguish the separator card 4020 from other types of documents suchas casino tickets. The characters “1234” can be used to identify theparticular document source, e.g., a particular slot machine, from whichthe associated batch of documents 4010 has been retrieved. Thus, byusing a barcode 4140 and a set of characters 4150 both a human operatorand the device 4000 can identify the source from which the batches ofdocuments 4010 have been retrieved.

The rectangular bar 4130 is an optional mark that corresponds to aprinter registration mark used by a printer device to imprint thebarcode 4140 and the set of characters 4150 in a consistent location onthe separator card 4020.

Referring now to FIGS. 31 a and 31 b, the batch of documents 4010includes currency bills of varying denominations, such as $5, $10, and$20 bills, and a separator card 4020, which is placed behind the lastbill or document to be processed in the batch of documents 4010. Asshown in FIG. 31 b, the material 4120 faces away from the remainingdocuments in the batch of documents 4010 so that it is visible to theoperator. Note that for ease of illustration, the separator card 4020 ishighlighted by thicker lines to distinguish it from documents in thebatch. This highlighting does not necessarily mean that the separatorcard 4020 is thicker than the documents in the batch 4010. For example,in some embodiments, the separator card 4020 has substantially the samethickness as a currency bill, and in other embodiments, the separatorcard 4020 has a thickness different from that of currency bills. Theseparator card 4020 also has the same dimensions as a currency bill, butin other embodiments, the separator card 4020 may have differentdimensions to further distinguish it from currency bills. For example,in such other embodiments, in addition to sensing the foil 4210 on theseparator card 4020, the document processing device may also detect thesize of the foil.

In some embodiments, the batch 4010 may be collected in a cartridge orsimilar containing device and such device can be inserted or attached toa feeder assembly appropriately modified to accept such device. In suchembodiments, the operator inserts into the cartridge a separator card4020 behind the last document to be processed in the batch 4010, andinserts or attaches the cartridge to the feeder assembly.

Referring now to FIG. 32, the feeder assembly 4030 is adapted to feedbatches of documents 4010 a,b and their corresponding separator cardsinto the device 4000. Each batch of documents 4010 a,b is placed in thefeeder assembly 4030 and is separated from an adjacent batch by acorresponding separator card 4020 a,b. Each separator card 4020 a,b isplaced behind the last document to be processed in each respective batchof documents 4010 a,b.

Referring now to FIG. 33, one embodiment of the feeder assembly 4030 isshown containing three batches of documents 4010 a,b,c and correspondingseparator cards 4020 a,b,c with their foils facing the operator. Thefeeder assembly 4030 includes two slideable paddles 4065 which can beused for separating certain batches from other batches. The feederassembly 4030 includes a sensor assembly 4071 that detects whether afoil is present on any passing document in the feeder assembly 4030.

Referring now to FIG. 34, the sensor assembly 4071 is shown in anenlarged view of part of the feeder assembly 4030. In the illustratedembodiment, the sensor assembly 4071 is positioned on one side of thetransport path such that the material 4120 faces the sensor assembly4071 as the separator card 4020 is moved past the sensor assembly 4071.The sensor assembly 4071 senses anything conductive, such as thematerial 4120, and therefore senses each separator card 4020 a,b,c,d asit is being transported past the sensor assembly 4071. The sensorassembly 4071 can identify the separator card 4020 even if the separatorcard 4020 is masked by one or more adjacent documents. Such maskingmight occur, for example, if one or more currency bills behind theseparator card 4020 are fed through the feeder assembly 4030 concurrentwith the separator card 4020. Another masking might occur if theseparator card itself is faced in the batch with its foil facing theother documents in the batch.

Referring now to FIG. 35, in one embodiment of the present invention thesensor assembly 4071 includes a continuous processing sensor 4073 suchas a TouchSensor, commercially available from TouchSensor Technologies,LLC, headquartered in Wheaton, Ill. It is emphasized that anyfield-effect sensor that can sense conductive materials may be usedinstead. The TouchSensor is a low impedance field-effect switch that isused in combination with specific pad geometry to form a TouchCell. EachTouchCell includes a sensor integrated circuit, two resistors forsensitivity setting, and an electrode structure. A voltage is appliedacross the TouchCell, creating an electric field that emanates throughany dielectric substrate such as glass or plastic. When a conductivemass (such as a foil on a separator card) enters the electric field, thesensor 4073 detects the change and indicates an event has occurred.

Referring now to FIGS. 36-38, the transport mechanism 4050 includes aforward stacker 4080 and a reverse stacker 4090. The forward stacker4080 is associated with the first offsort receptacle 4060 a, and thereverse stacker 4090 is associated with the second offsort receptacle4060 b. Documents that are sent to the first offsort receptacle 4060 aare transported via the forward stacker 4080, and documents that aresent to the second offsort receptacle 4060 b are transported via thereverse stacker 4090. The reverse stacker 4090 outputs documents suchthat the documents are facing the same direction they faced when theywere placed in the feeder assembly 4030, and in the same order. Forexample, if a $5 bill, a $10 bill and a separator card are sent to thesecond offsort receptacle 4060 b via the reverse stacker 4090 in thatorder, the second offsort receptacle 4060 b would contain the $5 bill,the $10 bill, and the separator card in that same order and facing thesame direction as originally fed into the feeder assembly 4030. Anadvantage to reverse stacking the documents is that the original orderand facing positions of the documents are preserved, reducing operatorconfusion about the order in which the documents were processed.

Referring now to FIG. 39, a method of processing a batch of documentsaccording to one embodiment of the present invention will be described.At step 4200, an operator retrieves a first batch of documents from afirst machine For example, a casino employee retrieves a batch ofdocuments containing currency bills and casino tickets from a gamingmachine. The operator, at step 4210, optionally generates a firstseparator card bearing a source identification that identifies thesource (e.g., the gaming machine) from which the first batch ofdocuments was retrieved. For example, the operator can have a pluralityof blank separator cards, one of which is imprinted, using a thermalprinter, with the barcode number 4140 and the set of characters 4150, toform the first separator card. The first separator card and its blankcounterpart have a conductive material pre-disposed thereon as describedabove. The operator places the first separator card behind the lastdocument to be processed in the batch. In other embodiments, theoperator can have a set of pre-printed separator cards having a sequenceof barcode numbers and characters identifying the various sources ofdocuments in the environment. In such embodiments, the operator simplylocates a separator card bearing the source identification correspondingto the gaming machine from which the operator has emptied a set ofdocuments, and places the separator card behind the last document to beprocessed in the batch.

In embodiments where both steps 4200 and 4210 are performed, it shouldbe noted that such steps can be performed in any order. In otherembodiments, in lieu of step 4210, the first separator card can berecycled from a previously generated separator card and reused toidentify a newly collected batch of documents 4010. Unless the set ofcharacters identifying a source of documents is altered, a separatorcard identifying such source can be reused as often as desired.

As described above, the operator arranges the first batch of documentssuch that the first separator card is the last document to be processedand such that the foil on the first separator card faces outward so asto be visible by the operator. The other face of the separator card isconcealed from view by the preceding documents in the batch. If theoperator faces the separator card the wrong way in the documentprocessing device, the separator card will still be sensed thanks to thefield-effect sensing capabilities of the sensor assembly 4071.

At step 4220, the operator retrieves a next batch of documents from asource, if there is a next batch, and optionally generates, at step4230, a next separator card that identifies the source of the next batchof documents. The same embodiments described in connection with steps4200, 4210 also apply to steps 4220, 4230.

As with the first batch of documents, the operator places the nextseparator card behind the last document in the next batch of documents.The first and next batches of documents and corresponding separatorcards can be arranged sequentially or maintained separately untildepositing into the feeder assembly 4030. The documents must be arrangedsuch that the separator card corresponding to a particular batch ofdocuments is placed so as to be the last document to be processed afterall the documents in the particular batch has been processed.

At step 4240, if there are additional batches of documents to beretrieved, step 4220 and optional step 4230 are repeated. If there areno additional batches of documents to be retrieved (step 4240), theretrieved batches of documents and corresponding separator cards areproperly ordered and loaded into the feeder assembly 4030 of thedocument processing device 4000. The proper order of the documents, fromthe first document to the last document to be processed, is as follows:the documents in the first batch of documents followed by the firstseparator card followed by the documents in the next batch of documentsfollowed by the next separator card.

At step 4250, the first batch of documents and corresponding firstseparator card are processed in a document processing device, such asthe device 4000. The device 4000 maintains batch integrity, which refersto ensuring that no documents associated with other batches areco-mingled with the batch being processed, by pausing operation of thefeeder assembly 4030 after a separator card has been sensed. Thus, thedevice 4000 will not resume feeding the next batch of documents untilthe first batch of documents has been successfully processed, forexample, when all jams and rejects in the first batch have beenreconciled.

The device 4000 processes the first batch of documents and, if there areno rejects, jams, or other processing anomalies, the first batch ofdocuments is closed at step 4300 following detection of the sourceidentification information on the first separator card. A closed batchrefers to a batch that has been successfully processed such that thesource identification information and batch totals can be transmitted toan accounting system. The accounting system reconciles the batch totalsusing the source identification information with associated accountinformation to verify whether the batch totals equal the totalsassociated with a particular account or accounts in the accountingsystem.

A reject refers to documents such as a no call bill, a suspect bill, adocument causing a feed error, or a separator card. In some embodiments,all rejects are routed to a common output receptacle, such as the secondoffsort receptacle 4060 b shown and described above. Such embodimentspromote batch integrity by arranging all rejects in one receptacle,providing confidence to the operator that all other documents notlocated in that receptacle processed successfully. Furthermore, therejects are intuitively arranged in the same order in which they werearranged in the input receptacle, reducing operator confusion.

Referring again to step 4260, if the device 4000 rejects one or moredocuments associated with the first batch of documents, all the rejecteddocument(s) including the first separator card are sent to a designatedreceptacle, such as the second offsort receptacle 4060 b (step 4270). Inother embodiments, the rejected documents are sent to any one or morepre-programmed or operator-specified output receptacle, such as thefirst offsort receptacle 4060 a. For example, the rejects can beoffsorted according to their type, e.g., no call, suspect, or separatorcard.

At step 4280, the operator reprocesses the rejects including the firstseparator card by replacing the rejects in the feeder assembly 4030 anddirecting the device 4000 to reprocess the rejects. The rejectsincluding the separator card are removed from the offsort receptacle andreplaced in the feeder assembly 4030 without having to reorient them.Maintaining the original order and facing orientation of the rejectspreserves batch integrity by eliminating operator discretion inreplacing the rejects for reprocessing. No reorientation is necessary,nor is there any doubt as to which batch the rejects belong.

Alternatively, instead of performing step 4280 the operator may chooseto manually process the rejected documents and/or the first separatorcard by manually entering the characteristic information associated witheach of the rejected documents, e.g., the amount of a currency bill, andthe source identification information. For example, this option may bedesirable when a relatively small number of documents are rejected orwhen the device 4000 rejects the same documents more than once.

Referring now to step 4300, the first batch of documents is closed afterall the documents from the first batch have been successfully processed,meaning that any and all jams, rejects, and other processing anomalieshave been reconciled, and all other documents processed normally havebeen evaluated. When the batch is closed, all documents in that batchare correlated to the source identification information associated withthe separator card. After the first batch is closed, the first separatorcard may be discarded or may be reused for a different batch ofdocuments that will be retrieved in the future from the same machinefrom which the first batch of documents was retrieved.

At step 4310, all the documents from the first batch of documents havebeen sent to one or more of the output receptacles 4070 a-4070 f, andthe first separator card has been sent to the first offsort receptacle.Note that in this embodiment it is irrelevant which orientation thefirst separator card is facing when placed in the first offsortreceptacle because the first separator card has no further use inrelation to the closed first batch of documents. In other embodiments,the first separator card can be sent to any one receptacle of the secondoffsort receptacle and the output receptacles 4070 a-4070 f and thedocuments from the batch can be sent to one or more of the outputreceptacles 4070 a-4070 f and the first and second offsort receptacles.

At step 4320, after the first batch and the first separator card havebeen processed and sent to the appropriate output receptacles, thedevice 4000 determines whether any batches remain in the feeder assembly4030. If the device 4000 determines that no additional batches remain inthe feeder assembly 4030, the processing run is ended and the device4000 is readied to receive another set of batches of documents into thefeeder assembly 4030.

Referring again to step 4320, if the device 4000 determines thatadditional batches of documents require processing, operation of thefeeder assembly is resumed, and the next batch of documents is processedat step 4330. Just like the processing of the first batch of documents,the device 4000 will not begin feeding another batch of documents untilthis next batch of documents has been successfully processed. Note thatif there are no rejects or jams in the previous batch, The device 4000will process the next batch of documents and, if there are no rejects orjams, this batch of documents will be closed at step 4380.

The procedure at step 4330 through step 4390 is similar to the proceduredescribed above at steps 4250 through 4310. At step 4390, all thedocuments from the next batch of documents are sent to one or more ofthe output receptacles 4070 a-4070 f where they are stacked either bythemselves or along with the documents from the first batch. Asmentioned above, the processed separator cards may be collected andreused to identify future batches of documents.

Step 4330 through step 4390 can repeat until, at step 4400, the device4000 determines that all the batches of documents 4010 from the feederassembly 4030 have been successfully processed. At this point, device4000 is ready for further loading of another retrieved batch ofdocuments 4010 into the feeder assembly 4030.

Referring now to FIG. 40, a method for reconciling a document jam willbe described. At step 4500, after a document jam, the processedseparator cards 4020 that have been sent to the first offsort receptacleare cleared. For example, in some embodiments, the device 4000 instructsthe operator that a “JAM HAS OCCURRED” and to “PLEASE CLEAR UPPER REJECTPOCKET,” as shown in FIG. 40 b. An optional sensor in the first offsortreceptacle 4060 a can detect whether any documents have in fact beencleared from that receptacle before guiding the operator to the nextstep.

At step 4510, the feeder assembly 4030 is cleared of all documents toprevent any new batches of documents from being processed until the jamreconciliation process has been completed. For example, in oneembodiment of the invention, the device 4000 instructs the operator to“PLEASE CLEAR FEEDER AREA,” as shown in FIG. 40 c. To clear the feederassembly 4030, the documents can be physically removed from the feederassembly 4030, or the remaining documents can be pushed sufficientlyaway from the input area of the feeder assembly 4030 by using one ormore of the paddles 4065 a,b. An optional sensor in the feeder assembly4030 can detect whether remaining documents have been moved away fromthe input area before permitting the operator to advance the next step.

At step 4520, the device 4000 is flushed to remove all the documentsremaining in the transport path of the device 4000. This flush willensure that all of the documents are transferred to designated orpre-programmed escrow receptacle. In alternate embodiments, an escrowreceptacle can be any one of the lower output receptacles 4070 a-4070 for the offsort receptacle 4060 a, and it is a receptacle used for thetemporary storage of flushed documents. In some embodiments, beforeflushing, the operator clears all processed documents from the escrowreceptacle to prevent the co-mingling of processed documents andunprocessed documents.

At step 4530, the operator collects the flushed documents from theescrow receptacle and any reject documents and the separator card fromthe offsort receptacle 4060 b, and reloads these documents into thefeeder assembly 4030 to be re-fed into the device 4000. For example, ina specific embodiment of the invention the device 4000 instructs theoperator to “PLEASE PLACE MONEY FROM ESCROWS AT FRONT OF FEEDER ANDRERUN,” as shown in FIG. 40 d. All the documents to be re-fed aredocuments from the same batch of documents, which batch corresponds tothe separator card found in the offsort receptacle 4060 b. In thisrespect, the operator is assured that no documents in the escrowreceptacle or offsort receptacle 4060 b belong to a different batch ofdocuments other than the batch being processed before the jam condition.

At step 4540, the documents are reprocessed in the device 4000 to verifythe original count prior to the jam condition. At step 4550, the device4000 determines whether all the documents can be successfully processed.An optional manual entry screen such as shown in FIG. 40 e is providedfor the operator to enter via a conventional input device any documentsthat cannot be properly processed by the device 4000. The input devicemay be a touchscreen or a keyboard, for example. Thus, at step 4560, theoperator manually enters problematic documents that cannot bere-processed, such as a document that continues to causes a document jamor a suspect bill.

Referring again to step 4550, if all the documents can be properlyprocessed, at step 4570, the device 4000 finishes processing anyremaining documents in the batch of documents before the jam condition.For example, in some embodiments, the device 4000 returns to a defaultscreen such as the one shown in FIG. 40 f. After the document jam hasbeen reconciled, the operator can return to the feeder assembly 4030 allthe batches of documents that were previously removed from the feederassembly 4030.

In other embodiments, after each batch of documents 4010 is successfullyprocessed, the device 4000 transmits the source identificationinformation and batch total to a host accounting system. Thistransmission can be carried out while the device 4000 is processing anext batch of documents 4010. In still other embodiments, thetransmission is carried out after the device 4000 has finishedprocessing all the batches of documents 4010. The accounting systemassociates an account with the batch total and source identificationinformation.

While the present invention has been described with reference to one ormore particular embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognizethat many changes may be made thereto without departing from the spiritand scope of the present invention. Each of these embodiments andobvious variations thereof is contemplated as falling within the spiritand scope of the claimed invention, which is set forth in the followingclaims.

1. A method of processing documents, comprising: receiving a stack ofdocuments including currency bills and substitute currency media, eachsubstitute currency medium having at least one barcode; transporting thestack of documents via a transport mechanism, one document at a time,along a transport path; denominating with a currency detector each ofthe currency bills in the stack of documents, the currency detectorpositioned adjacent the transport path; scanning with a barcode scannera barcode on each substitute currency medium in the stack of documents,the barcode scanner positioned adjacent the transport path; and imagingwith an image scanner each substitute currency medium in the stack ofdocuments to generate a raw image file of the substitute currencymedium, the image scanner positioned adjacent the transport path. 2-57.(canceled)